Unpaid Debts
by DearLemonLima
Summary: It was very unexpected for the Fire Nation Princess to spare the life of an Earth Kingdom girl sentenced to death. It was more unexpected for Azula to fall in love with her. Regardless, her destiny is intertwined with Ty Lee's and there is nothing she can do to change that. Azula/Ty Lee AU.
1. Pickpocket

**_AN: _**_My first stab at Tyzula, and at a long fanfiction.  
_**_Chapters: _**_42.  
_**_Ships: _**_Azula x Ty Lee with a Zuko x Toph subplot.  
_**_Beta: _**_FanfictionVillainess  
_**_Warnings: _**_Mild violence, a bit of harsh language, mild sexual content bordering on limes and dark themes of slavery and abuse._

* * *

"Don't kill her." Those words stun the soldiers present. "Stop _gawking_. I said don't kill her and I mean it."

Azula speaks clearly to the brigade of soldiers that are gathered in the governor's house. One of them clutches the Earth Kingdom girl by her braid, the other holds a sword to her palpitating throat. The room is dimly lit, the sun slowly setting over the Earth Kingdom mountains. Azula is on a futile mission with her bored companion sitting in the corner waiting for either blood or drama, and this Earth Kingdom girl is waiting for her fate.

It is a dull mining town. Azula simply has been passing through on her way to do much more important things. But here she is, robbed, and about to spare the life of the girl who robbed her. All because of the peculiar way in which the Earth Kingdom girl did it.

The strike came out of nowhere, so calculated. And the way she moved was almost like that of an airbender, or perhaps a waterbender, although Azula has seen neither in her life. The last waterbender of the Southern Tribe died when Azula was a newborn, and the last airbender died a hundred years ago. But there was something about the motions on her toned, tanned arms that made Azula think that perhaps she was lucky enough to have stumbled into the avatar.

"She stole from you," General Chan, the wielder of the blade, protests.

"I don't care. When I tell you not to kill her, I mean put the sword down before I gut you with it, General Chan," Azula continues calmly and he moves the sword away from the ruffian's throat. "There. Was that so hard?"

The Earth Kingdom girl looks up at Azula with her wide innocent eyes. Azula's far-less innocent eyes drift lower and examine the curves of her body, hating the rush of heat there is in her body, and then she quickly peels her eyes from her captives breasts. The Earth Kingdom girl seems baffled in the manner of a small animal or cute child, but clearly she is Azula's age. _The age of the Avatar_, the strategist in Azula notes, but she walks forward, the soldiers nearby fluttering away from her in a panic, and helps the girl to her feet.

"Thank you," stammers the Earth Kingdom girl as Azula examines her closely. Almost as if she is going to eat her; there _is _something desiring in her golden eyes. "How I can I repay you?"

Azula is rather intrigued by the girlish voice. She seems unnerved by the fact she was about to die, save from slightly shaking hands and stumbling words. The princess has seen people lined up for execution before and usually, they tend to cry. But not this girl. Hm. Perhaps she has just seen too much.

"Show me how you did that," Azula purrs and the Earth Kingdom girl tilts her head to the side like a kitten. It is _almost _cute but Azula steps back and crosses her arms.

"You mean... the... the chi blocking?" the Earth Kingdom girl asks quietly and Azula shrugs, then nods. The Earth Kingdom girl nods feverishly and moves into a demonstration.

Azula studies the motions as the Earth Kingdom girl goes through them with a very unhappy soldier. She watches the jabs, tries to memorize the locations. This girl is beyond useful and General Chan was about to slaughter her. It displeases the princess, but she supposes that the Earth Kingdom is ridden with barbarism.

"I'm keeping her," Princess Azula declares and the Earth Kingdom girl studies her closely. She does not seem to know what to say. "She can join me on my quest to find my brother."

"Are you sure that's wise, princess?" General Chan inquires uncomfortably, glancing between the petty thief and the crown princess.

"I will tell you what is wise," Azula replies sharply and he bites his tongue. She flickers her eyes up and down the Earth Kingdom girl's body again and then nods. "What's your name?"

"Uh, Ty Lee," the Earth Kingdom girl says, offering a grin. She _smiles_, which Azula finds funny. She is a strange girl, certainly.

"Well, I'm Princess Azula and this is Mai," Azula says slowly, purring. General Chan has no idea what she is doing and he does not like it. "You're going to be our slave."

"Uh, okay," Ty Lee says in her girlish voice and Azula blinks slowly. She did not expect such an amicable reaction to slavery.

"That's it?" Azula asks and Ty Lee looks at her, clearly confused. Azula sighs and supposes this is what she is going to work with. "Alright, come on."

* * *

**_One Month Ago_**

_Azula walks through the palace cautiously, carefully, wondering what is happening. The advisors of her father are in a frenzy and Azula rolls her eyes. Her Nation's leaders are a very feeble crew, save for her father._

_She pushes past them, trying to force her way to the throne room. And she succeeds, letting herself in and seeing her father in the middle of an audience._

_"Azula," Ozai says and she flinches slightly. "Come sit. You can help me with this."_

_It is unexpected but undeniably pleasant. She strides across the room and sits at her father's right hand smugly. She is sixteen and already completely prepared to take the throne when the time comes, and incredibly grateful that over five years ago her brother was banished for disgracing the family._

_"What's happening, father?" Azula asks as she admires how he makes such grown men grovel. The people in front of them have their lips touching the floor and it brings an almost sexual pleasure to Azula._

_"The rebels have taken out our major fortress near Ba Sing Se. And, to make matters more interesting, your brother is now one of them," Fire Lord Ozai says and Azula's eyes flash. She knew Zuko was a traitor but she never imagined him joining the rebels._

_Zuko was sent out after the Avatar. He was two when the last Avatar died; a waterbender by the name of Hama. She died in prison before Azula was born, and the Avatar before that died when Fire Lord Sozin killed off the airbenders. Fire Lord Sozin defeated an Air Avatar, Fire Lord Azulon a Water Avatar, and Fire Lord Ozai will defeat the Earth Avatar. Azula supposes that leaves Fire to her, but she assumes the fire Avatar will be on _her _side, not the other way around._

_And therefore she is stunned that Zuko has stopped searching for the Earth Kingdom girl or boy and joined the rebels. Maybe he got bored. Maybe it was Uncle's influence. Azula has no clue but she does not like it either way._

_Either way, Azula thinks that something will have to be done. She holds the audience with her father and studies those who speak very closely. It is almost possible to pretend she is Fire Lord as she watches and occasionally, when appropriate, interjects._

_After the day is dealt with and the information gathered, Fire Lord Ozai turns to his daughter and says, "I have a task for you."_

_"Yes, father?" Azula purrs, wondering if she should bow or not. She decides against it._

_"I want you to go retrieve your brother before he gets me into more trouble with the rebels," Fire Lord Ozai growls and Azula nods slowly._

_It is not exactly what she imagined doing with herself. But she heard the reports of the destruction of important weaponry, soldiers and the collection of intelligence the Fire Nation could use. And so she nods once more and agrees. If this is what it takes to prove her loyalty to her country, it is what she will have to do._

_"Prepare your things and train. It will be a difficult journey."_

* * *

Mai sighs as they walk back to the governor's mansion they are staying in. This inconsequential town is boring to both Mai and Azula, and they now have the company of a slave amongst the handful of soldiers who have been accompanying them on their quest to find Zuko and Iroh.

"So, we have her now?" Mai asks as if Ty Lee is not there. Ty Lee simply watches, her mouth tightly shut, and waits to figure out what these girls want.

Obviously the princess has sinister intentions. And her companion has the most _grey _aura Ty Lee has _ever _witnessed. But she is moderately excited to go on this adventure; her life has not been pleasant since the Fire Nation invaded. Her parents are both dead, and from three cities away. She joined the circus, then was arrested, then wound up living in a mining town making a meager living as a waitress who did occasional street performances on the side.

The Princess of the Fire Nation enslaving her might be the most fortunate thing that could happen, as terrible as that is. Not to mention she is one for excitement... as long as it does not get her killed. She plans to cooperate.

"Yes, we have her now," Azula replies to Mai and Ty Lee glances between them. This is beyond complicated and confusing. Ty Lee was never incredibly _smart_. But even she can tell that there are some unspoken words of criticism between Mai and Azula. "And it's my decision."

"Your father will be so pleased when we show up with a new pet." Mai pauses for a moment and laughs faintly. It is the most halfhearted laugh Ty Lee has ever heard. "Do you remember when you tried to bring home that stray cat."

"It scratched me." Azula turns to Ty Lee. "Don't scratch me or I'll have my father drown you like that cat."

Ty Lee makes a small squeaking noise and Mai laughs, this time more genuinely.

They finally reach the governor's mansion and settle into Azula and Mai's shared room. Ty Lee looks at the suitcases and the table with shining blades laid out on it. A stack of papers are sitting on the antique wooden table in the corner of the room. The bed looks plush like nothing Ty Lee has slept in before.

"I'm going to ask you a few questions," Azula says as Mai starts organizing the blades that are basked in sunlight from the window. The princess gestures to the bed and Ty Lee hesitantly sits down.

"Of course, princess," Ty Lee says and Mai squints at her for a moment. She does not seem to believe that Ty Lee is willing to play along.

"Are you an earthbender?" Azula inquires, studying her closely. It would be fate if she were the Avatar; Azula can only hope that she is the Avatar. It would explain her compulsion to spare a life instead of watch it be wasted.

"I can't bend at all. That's why I do the chi-blocking," Ty Lee replies blithely and Azula sighs. Figures.

"Well, it's an intriguing talent. Where are your parents?" Azula asks, sitting down in an armchair hastily reupholstered in red over green fabric. She crosses her legs and clasps her hands on her lap, her back straight and her gold gaze puncturing Ty Lee's essence.

"Both dead," Ty Lee explains and Azula slowly nods. "I've kind of bounced around. I worked in a circus for a while."

Mai laughs again. Azula smirks faintly, a cold twist of her lip that makes Ty Lee uneasy.

"What was your act?" the princess inquires and Ty Lee licks her lips.

"I did contortionism and acrobatics."

"See, Mai, she is useful," Azula says, turning away from Ty Lee to face her best friend since childhood. Mai simply shrugs.

"She's useful if she sides with us." Mai shrugs and returns to her knives.

Azula sighs. Ty Lee wonders if there was ever something romantic between them; they certainly act like it. Then again, Ty Lee is the kind of person who has a multitude of friends but none of them are very close. These two seem to have intimate knowledge of each other, simply from the way their eyes meet, amber and gold.

Ty Lee always found Fire Nation women beautiful. Perhaps it is just the thought that looking Fire Nation means you will be treated better, but the ink black hair, light skin and eyes the color of precious metals is somewhat glamorous. Everyone Fire Nation has too much Earth Kingdom mixed in here in the colonies to have such features. It is exotic, much like when Ty Lee saw a waterbender with tan skin and _blue _eyes. A brilliant cobalt hue, the man had, and chiseled features.

"You will side with us, won't you?" Azula purrs, her gaze on Mai but her face pointing at the profusely sweating Ty Lee.

"Mhm. I don't... think I have a choice," Ty Lee squeaks and Azula gestures at her as if her point is proven.

"What do you know about the rebels?" Azula asks and Ty Lee knits her eyebrows together. She looks completely confused. "Go on."

"No more than I've heard. Sometimes they get executed. This is a really drab town in the middle of nowhere. The rebels are usually closer to Ba Sing Se," Ty Lee says sweetly and Mai rubs her lips together. She looks as if she wants to say something, but she remains silent.

"My brother has joined them," Azula says and Mai makes a choking sound. "We're on a mission to collect him and regain what was stolen from the Fire Nation."

The room is silent. Mai shakes her head slowly but does not protest Azula.

"Can I ask you a question, princess?" Ty Lee inquires and Azula slowly nods. Mai rolls her eyes. "Why did you save me?"

"That's for me to know and you to find out." The truth is, Azula has no idea. When she saw the knife going to the thief's throat, her stomach had the sensation of burning. Her chest felt like it was imploding. And she had a rush of nerves that both made her happy and frantic and angry.

Something in her was telling her that this Earth Kingdom pickpocket had a part to play in this war.

Or so Azula tells herself.

* * *

**_Two Weeks Ago_**

_Azula seeks out Mai first and foremost. She will need all of the help she can get on her quest to regain what her father has lost. And she does not trust these soldiers as far as she can throw them, no matter how many medals they brandish at her._

_She arrives in Omashu unannounced, but quickly there is commotion. Everyone who is anyone wants to see Princess Azula, but all she wants is to collect her friend and set off to find Zuko, Uncle and the dignity of her father._

_"Have you come to kill me?" inquires Mai with a small sigh. Azula smirks; she missed her._

_It was typical of father to give governorship of a city to Azula's only friend's father. Singling his daughter out, removing distractions from making her into a weapon of war. Perhaps she is gathering Mai for selfish reasons beyond just someone more competent than soldiers to follow her on her journey._

_"Only if you piss me off," Azula replies as she offers a halfhearted hug. Mai still smells the same as she used to. Slight twinge of regret, slight sensation of her stomach twisting. _

_"I'll try to avoid that," Mai replies, offering what could pass for a smile. Azula steps back and examines her closely._

_"You look good. Paler than usual, if that's possible. A little... sickly. But good."_

_"If you say so, princess. So what is it you need?"_

_"Is it a crime to visit an old friend?"_

_"I said, what is it you need? You don't even talk to people if you don't want something from them."_

_Azula thought she was in love with Mai for a while. That was right before father had her sent away. She thought she loved her because there was nothing to gain, and that did not matter. But love is a lie. It is not something Azula thinks she will ever manage to experience._

_"I need you to join me on my mission," Azula spits out and Mai takes a deep breath and nods._

_"Count me in. Anything is better than the monotony. And the _cold_," Mai says, shivering in example. Azula smiles faintly with relief in her chest. _

_"You remember my brother?"_

_"How could I forget?"_

* * *

Azula, Mai and Ty Lee leave at daybreak. Ty Lee is exhausted, Mai twice as tired, and Azula abuzz. Mai thinks Azula did not go to sleep last night at all, and Mai does not blame her. Mai kept worrying that she would wake up and the slave girl would have broken free of her chains and strangled Mai and Azula in their beds.

And Mai knows that Azula has no grand plan with her prisoner; she has the hots for her. That is the only logical explanation for Azula's illogical explanation, and Mai finds it vaguely disturbing. But, then again, maybe Azula does have some grand plan. Mai would not put it past her.

They have only made it three miles when they are attacked. It starts with a boulder rolling directly at Mai, but she dives out of the way and plunges several projectile knives into the chest of the earthbender who tried to kill her. The soldiers accompanying the three girls start an immediate battle with the onslaught of rebels.

Azula glances at her Earth Kingdom slave girl and slashes a single blue flame that breaks the chains around her wrists. Mai rolls her eyes as Azula hits a man about to slash Mai with a sword with a bolt of lightning. The clearing smells like burnt flesh as Azula takes down two more rebels. They clearly are not expertly trained.

One throws a punch at Azula and she does an aerial flip over his shoulder, running a nail across his neck as she passes him, and then finishing the bleeding, gasping man off with a whirlpool of azure fire. She glances up at the slave girl and sees that she is taking out the rebels going after her.

Azula watches as she strips the bending from the earthbenders and it fascinates her. It is at that moment that a chunk of rock goes flying at her and nearly hits her in the ribs. It disappates in an uncontrolled blast of red fire that Azula cannot imagine coming from her controlled, elite soldiers.

And then she hears a shriek of terror from the Earth Kingdom girl. It was her. She was _firebending_. Azula swallows her rage and finishes off the woman who nearly broke Azula's ribs with rock, and soon the rebels are defeated with no casualties to the Fire Nation.

"Put the shackles back on her!" is the first thing Azula orders after the smoke clears. General Chan immediately obeys, latching them on.

Azula walks to Ty Lee, who is shaking, looking about to vomit all over her shoes. Mai catches her breath and joins Azula, looking on. Her hands are still smoking with a small amount of fire; clearly she is a pitiful excuse for a firebender.

"You lied to me. You said you couldn't bend at all; that's _firebending_!" Azula looks livid, her golden eyes flashing as Ty Lee gasps for breath in fear. She somehow manages to control the flames on her hands and bursts into hysterical tears.

The symbol of optimism in the trio is now crying and crying and crying. Azula walks to her slowly before Mai can hold her back, and kneels beside her. They both are on the floor of the ship and Azula rubs Ty Lee's back. It is a gesture of kindness; the carrot instead of the stick. Azula thinks she will make more progress with feigned sweetness.

"I've always had to hide it. I lied because I lie to everybody," Ty Lee whimpers, rubbing her eyes. "My father was an earthbender and so was my mother so one of them... one of them had an affair, okay? I'm not trained in it and I always use my acrobatics and chi-blocking and I try to control it and..."

"You shouldn't have lied," Azula says, clenching her fists. She is not one to go back on her word, and she knows she has the feeling that Ty Lee has an important role in the war, but she does not like to be _lied to_ or treated like a _fool_. "This is the end."

"Wait," Mai interrupts and Azula's eyebrows shoot up. "She's been pretty fucking useful, princess. I'd lie in her position too. Can you imagine being a firebender kid to two earthbending parents in an occupied town? Maybe you could teach her to control her firebending."

Azula hesitates. "You were just adamantly against taking her with us to use her gift for ─ chi blocking is it? ─ _yes _chi blocking. Why are you on her side now?"

"She didn't have to fight with us," Mai offers with a shrug. It likely means Ty Lee wants to exploit them for something, but Mai can see the value in an Earth Kingdom ally. Particularly one who can also firebend.

"It's only because I saved her," Azula snaps and Ty Lee weakly nods. It _is _only because Azula saved her life.

"But what if you train her?" Mai turns a palm up and Azula makes mental note to analyze her flip in opinion later.

Mai has a strong point. If Azula were to train her new Earth Kingdom accomplice, she could go leaps and bounds further. Ty Lee _is _her slave after all, and Azula is well within her rights to teach her basic bending on top of the chi blocking and the acrobatics she keeps talking about.

This is something her father has done for the army. Sparing lives to train enemies to fight for him. Azula thought she would do it for the chi blocking, but the _lying _about her bending is repulsive. Azula does not like to be lied to, even if she may be a compulsive liar.

"I'll train you," Azula offers finally, knowing it is the wise choice. She can always kill her later if she has to, she supposes.

And she is still trying to figure out why she saved her. There has to be some reason. Some reason that Azula did something like that impulsively.

Oh, she is selfish.

"Thank you, princess," whimpers Ty Lee.


	2. Friends and Foes

The sun is at its apex over bright blue, cloudless skies as two young women are trapped in a nearly sexual dance. Azula is teaching Ty Lee firebending, and deep down, hoping that another element will show up. Then again, hopes of the avatar tend to be futile and Azula is not delusional. A trained firebender is less dangerous than an untrained one, and therefore, Azula is simply doing her duty to mankind.

"I want you to breathe in very slowly," Azula says crisply, her hands clasped behind her back. Ty Lee shrinks slightly at her posture, which is exactly the effect it is intended to have. "Firebending comes from the _breath_."

They have stopped at a Fire Nation outpost in the Earth Kingdom to stay for a few days to recover from the past three attacks by rebels. Azula is thrilled by the fact that the rebels are nearby; it means her work may be over sooner than she believed it would be.

That is, if Zuko is with them. He could be in an entirely different chapter, but Azula knows a little fire and metal goes a long way, and one of them will snap. It would be difficult for people _not _to know where the Fire Nation's Prince is, if he works for the _rebellion _against his own father.

"Alright." Ty Lee breathes slowly. And then forgets to breathe. Then gasps for air muttering, "Forgot to breathe, forgot to breathe," and choking. Azula tries not to cringe.

This may be harder than she imagined it to be.

"It's a wonder nobody ever taught you. You never had an outburst before?" Azula asks, pacing around Ty Lee in a way that makes her want to hide. It is how a lion vulture in the circus will circle before it mauls someone.

"Nope. I've never been in a situation like that before, though," Ty Lee says, scratching her head before quickly realizing she is supposed to be doing some kind of special breathing. "I've never been attacked from all angles by huge guys."

"Hm. Breathe from your diaphragm."

"My what?" Ty Lee looks genuinely baffled. And then she frowns and bats her eyelashes at the exasperated expression Azula is unable to hide.

"I... This is going to take all day, isn't it?" Azula knows she has the choice to not do this all day, but she wants to. She finds herself intrigued and so help her Mai is wrong when she sees it is just hormonal attraction. There is a reason for it and Azula is certain.

Or she could just be deluding herself.

Ty Lee forgets to breathe again.

It is likely Azula is deluding herself.

* * *

In Azula and Mai's tent, the princess is wearing a small smirk.

"You are jealous, Mai," Azula says sharply, clasping her hands on her lap and straightening her posture drastically. "You are jealous because I'm interested in someone other than you. But I'm not going to wait forever, am I?"

Mai sighs, rubbing her temples. She is already getting a headache from Azula. This Earth Kingdom girl thing is by far the most reckless thing Azula has done since she kissed Mai on the mouth. She is drunk on power and should probably not be trusted with a bag of toy soldiers, much less the Fire Nation army. But Mai swallows her criticism and tries to deal with this like a responsible adult.

"I'm not _jealous_, Azula," she says. Not going so well in the _responsible adult _department. "I just think that you getting romantically entangled when we're supposed to be stopping a rebellion singlehandedly is probably a little unwise. You're level headed to a really depressing extent. You don't do anything without analyzing it forever. So, you impulse rescued a hot chick and expect everyone to act like it's some brilliant plan?"

Azula clenches her jaw, grinding her teeth together slightly. "I didn't _impulse rescue a hot chick_."

"That is exactly what you did," Mai says, crossing her arms. "I'm the only person who is ever going to be honest with you about your decisions. And this is a _bad decision_."

"She has the potential to be a pretty good firebender," Azula says, kicking her foot back in forth in a way that just makes Mai want to hack it off starting at the ankle. Working with Azula is an exercise in frustration, as much as Mai loves her.

"Her firebending skills don't matter. What matters is that, what if you start _trusting her _or something?" Mai sits down on the bed and stares at her feet. She thinks she is going to faint. Is it possible to be this frustrated? And is it possible to keep completely calm and vacant when Azula is diving off of a cliff and dragging Mai down with her?

"I don't trust anybody. I don't trust you. I don't trust my father. Trust is for fools," Azula says placidly and Mai fights the urge to punch her.

"Azula, I don't intend on betraying you or fighting against you. Even if you don't trust me, I trust you. But... look, I'm completely willing to throw a knife into Zuko's neck if we have to. So tell me you're willing to hit this girl with a bolt of lightning, despite your very hot and bothered thoughts about her," Mai says hopefully and Azula purses her lips for a moment.

"Of course I am," Azula says and Mai believes her. Or at least she _wants _to believe her, which Mai supposes will have to do.

"You're nervous, aren't you? About what's going to happen when we find Zuko," Mai says and Azula swallows. There is a brief glint of rage in her eyes like sun on a bronze sword. "I am too."

"I know what's going to happen. I'm going to defeat him, collect him and reclaim my father's property," Azula says, but her confidence is clearly fake to Mai. If she were a gushier type, she would want to hug Azula, but instead, she just accepts lies as truth and does not interfere.

It works for them.

"So, you're not waiting forever?" Mai changes the subject because she knows it is for the best.

"I can't," Azula says, although her words carry a hint of bitterness. "If you want to be in love with a traitor instead of the future Fire Lord, that's your choice."

"I'm not in love with him," Mai says sharply and Azula's eyes flicker with some sick pleasure. Mai despises how much Azula loves striking a nerve. "It was a _very _long time ago. Azula, I haven't seen him in like seven years. It's pretty over at this point."

"You see me every day," Azula protests and Mai sighs and swallows. "But, I can't force you to be attracted to me, although everyone else seems to be. I'm going to check on our prisoner."

Azula stands up, as if it makes her the better person, and leaves Mai behind. As she shuts the door, Mai clenches her fists and bites the inside of her cheek.

She does not deserve putting up with this.

Even if Azula is her only friend.

* * *

_**Two Years Ago**_

_ It is a summer day, and Azula is pouring heaps of sugar into tea. She is not exactly allowed to do that, with her strict regime of training, but she does not care today. Her father has stolen enough of her ideas, and now, and now he has locked her out of his meeting about Sozin's Comet._

_ He is going to seize the Earth Kingdom and Azula _deserves _to be there. She is going to take the throne one day and the comet is as much hers as it is his. But he seems to only invite her to things when he needs her. He misses everything in her life, and so help her, if she wants tea with enough sugar to kill her, she can do it._

_ Rebelling is ridiculous. She will wind up like Zuko. But spiting her father is pleasurable to her; at least as much as spiting other people is._

_ She drinks it, disgusted by the sweetness but entirely unwilling to back down. She started it and she is going to finish it. But the tea is bittersweet, despite the overwhelming sugar, because Azula is sitting alone in a corner of the palace, surrounded by dust and old relics, tapestries with small scorch marks with no explanations behind him._

_ Sitting alone. As usual. As always. Azula is sitting all alone._

_ She opens the letter from Mai that she has been saving. Her letters are usually just her whining about how much she hates the Earth Kingdom, but Azula wants to feel as if someone cares enough to acknowledge her. Particularly when she and her father discussed the comet and he simply took her ideas without crediting her._

_ But this letter is distinctly different. It doesn't have the lazy, drawling script Azula can't help but read in Mai's voice. It seems as if a good deal of thought was put into it. Azula carefully reads through it, her eyes flickering in surprise when she reaches the end._

_ Mai is coming back. After nearly two years, she is coming back to the Fire Nation. Azula supposes it only makes sense if her father is seizing the Earth Kingdom. But she feels almost giddy. Everything was stripped away from her, Mai was sent away, likely because of father, given that _he _awarded Mai's father the governorship. And Azula was pulled out of school so there was no chance she was making any new friends._

_ Mai was always her only friend. She was always the only person she trusted._

_ She also is the person Azula has been borderline in love with for a long time. She has this feeling in her gut of fluttering and twisting, a rush of anxiety and bliss, when she thinks about her. When she is around her it feels as if she is about to enter an Agni Kai. _

_ And Azula thinks that must be love._

_ Not that Mai feels the same way. And not that Azula doesn't have better things to do with her time than _pine _over a lost cause._

_ But Azula reads the letter a thousand times even though it is short and more of a notification than anything with thought, feeling or friendship._

_ It is small consolation while her father is actively betraying her in the throne room._

* * *

Zuko is sweating profusely as he runs through the forest. The trees cut any skin that is exposed, but he does not feel the pain from the rush of adrenaline. He got into a skirmish he does not think he can get out of, and he rips off his Blue Spirit mask and tucks it into the bag of stolen correspondence.

He starts to choke as he leaps through a thicket and keeps running, but now off of the trail. Hopefully they can't catch him, but he can hear their voices and the pounding of mongoose dragons against the dirt. Zuko keeps running, his throat constricting now and burning as if it is on fire. Each breath is painful, and finally, he has to stop and lean against a tree.

Zuko hides, unsure what to do. Terrified, incredibly terrified. He coughs and gasps and tries to make his breathing silent despite how labored it is. But he is not quiet enough, because he has to roll out of the way of a fiery blast that snaps the tree in half.

An arrow comes directly at him and he rolls again, this time colliding with a rock. He was doing just fine until they called for reinforcements. Nobody gave him _that _intel back at the rebel base.

He pushes himself onto his feet and realizes he can see the walls of a nearby town ahead. It could either mean arrest and execution, _or _the soldiers could stop and not follow him, instead of tearing up the streets which is against their protocol. He is willing to take a chance, even if they search for him in the town; it looks big enough to hide.

So he starts running. It is a chance he is willing to take as he clutches the bag of letters to higher ups in the military to his chest.

Walls. The town is surrounded by a wall. How convenient. Ugh. But Zuko jams his hands and legs into the bricks and starts climbing. The soldiers stop and Zuko realizes he is in a major city's jurisdiction now, which explains the defenses, and also makes this much easier on him. Whatever Fire Nation man or woman slithered their way to governorship likely has bigger things to worry about than a sole rebel hiding in their city.

He leaps down from the wall, finally catching his breath, and realizes he is in someone's backyard. Better to be arrested by the Earth Kingdom for breaking and entering than the Fire Nation for high treason, though.

"Who are you and what are you doing in my house?" demands the voice of a girl a few years younger than him.

He turns to face her and is surprised by what he sees.

* * *

_**Two Years Ago**_

_Zuko is approached by two sides before the comet. He had not heard anything about it, nor did he remember it from school. His uncle has a habit of hiding things from Zuko, which angers him, but he also knows that it is probably for his protection. Sometimes the less he knows may be saving him from his father's wrath._

_ And Zuko reluctantly accepts that. But once he finds out the comet is coming, he remembers being told about how Sozin used it to take out the airbenders. And that his father would likely try to follow in the footsteps of history's most famous Fire Lord and take out the Earth Kingdom._

_ "You'll be imprisoned," Uncle says as soon as they are alone together. The group of soldiers that arrived, headed by Admiral Zhao, are waiting impatiently for Zuko to make up his mind. But he is under the impression that he does not have a choice._

_ "Or, we'll burn alive," Zuko says, shrugging. Uncle hesitates, seeming deep in thought. And Zuko bristles. "You just don't want to go back because you hate my father! Obviously he cares about me enough to not want me to _die _during this comet, that you conveniently told me nothing about!"_

_ Uncle just breathes slowly and calmly. Zuko clenches his fists. He wants to rage and snap, but Iroh is making that difficult for him._

_ "I have friends in the Earth Kingdom. They would help us," he says and Zuko feels a twist in his gut and a pounding in his heart. _

_ The decision is not one he wants to make. Complying with his father is obviously the wisest thing to do, but Zuko... his uncle has never misled him and his father has. Zuko knows very well that he is not forgiven, that his father thinks he is an embarrassment, and that Azula will get the throne in the end. But he _wants _to believe that the man who made him loves him, and this is a sign that he at least wants Zuko to stay alive through the end of the war._

_ Zuko is growing tired of looking for the Avatar. He was young when Hama died of old age, and he never put much thought into there being another Avatar. It did not feel like something that mattered to him until his father gave him the absurd condition that he could come home if he found the new Avatar._

_ That is trying to find a needle in a haystack. Maybe worse than that, given the number of people in the Earth Kingdom even if father does take the country during the comet._

_ "Zuko, make the right choice," Uncle says and Zuko chomps on his lower lip, unsure what to say or do. He always knew he would have to choose between Iroh and Ozai someday, but he did not like to imagine what would happen._

_ "I guess we'll run then." Zuko feels knots in his stomach. He feels like it may be the wrong choice, and that scares him._

_ But he trusts his uncle more than he trusts his father and sister._

_ So they run. And run._

_ Zuko spends his whole life running but getting nowhere._

* * *

"Well, hello, Earth Kingdom girl," purrs a voice from behind Ty Lee. Ty Lee swallows and takes a deep breath. Azula utterly terrifies her and she does not know how to react to her presence.

But the firebending lessons have been nice. And Azula _did _save her life; there is a debt there that Ty Lee does not know if she can ever repay. So, for now, she is loyal to Azula. It is not as if she has any family or friends anyway. She might as well find an ally in the girl who will be Fire Lord one day. Ty Lee dreamt big, but never that big.

"Hello, princess." Ty Lee smiles at her and Azula gives her a strange look. Ty Lee's heart skips a beat when she wonders if she has said something wrong, but Azula loosens her posture and walks into the small room Ty Lee has been allotted.

"Are you settling in?" she asks, strange pleasantries. She does not talk nearly as kindly to the soldiers she travels with. But Ty Lee knows better than to think that the princess sees her as more than an insect, as optimistic as she tries to be.

"Very nicely. You've been... kind," Ty Lee murmurs, now getting nervous.

"What can I say? I'm a very compassionate and generous person." She shrugs with a small twist of half of her lips. It makes Ty Lee feel slightly like vomiting, but she manages to stay calm.

"You look really nice," Ty Lee squeaks, not sure what else to say. The princess looks about to laugh, but she doesn't.

"I know I do," Azula says, sitting down on the windowsill. She is above Ty Lee and making her feel infinitesimally small. "Tell me about your parents. The Earth Kingdom peasants who had a firebender baby with so much... raw potential."

"Oh, well, they're not very interesting," Ty Lee says softly, studying Azula. Her nerves are increasing and she can feel her chest tightening.

"I'm interested," Azula says, leaning forward. Ty Lee bites down on her lip and tastes salt and metal.

"It's a long story. But... I guess we have time." Ty Lee gives Azula a look with sparkling eyes and the princess seems satisfied. Once more, her innocent look serves her well. "They owned a restaurant. And they were pretty stable. They had a lot of kids, and they never got along, and sometimes my father just didn't come home at all. I ran away when I was twelve."

"But you came back?" Azula asks, intrigued. She often dreamt of running away, but she never could do it. Her Nation relied on her, and as much as she longed to escape, she would never betray them. They would love her, when her detached father and absent mother would not.

"No. The town you found me in wasn't my hometown. I don't know what happened to them. To be honest, I completely don't care," Ty Lee says with a gentle shrug. "I didn't love them, as wrong as that is."

"Not everybody has parents worth loving," Azula replies and Ty Lee is surprised. She expected admonishment as she gets from most people when she tells them that.

"That's right," Ty Lee says softly and Azula tilts her head to the side for a moment.

"Have a nice night. We're going to Gaoling in the morning." Azula stands up and leaves as quickly and mysteriously as she came, and Ty Lee is not sure what to say.

She just thinks she is in a much more dangerous position than thief.


	3. Eyes Wide Shut

"I'm, uh, I'm Zuko," Zuko stammers, looking at the girl.

She is not making eye contact with him, and it is at that moment that he realizes she is blind. Her green dress does not suit her, for some reason. She looks to be younger than Zuko, but not a child, maybe thirteen. And her expression could kill a sparrowkeet.

"Why are you in my backyard?" She does not sound as scared as Zuko would imagine a young blind girl to be when a teenage boy has invaded her home. She almost sounds _amused _by Zuko, in a way that reminds him vaguely of Azula.

"I'm running from soldiers," Zuko admits, rubbing his neck. He looks around for guards and finds the two of them alone.

"Why?" she asks and Zuko shrugs before realizing she cannot see that.

"Because, uh─" Zuko is interrupted by a man stepping into the courtyard.

The armored man looks at Zuko, who puts his hands up in the air in surrender, and says, "I'm going to give you five minutes to get lost."

Zuko nods frantically but the blind girl reaches out and grabs his arm. He jumps from the sudden seizing as she says, "He's hiding from the Fire Nation. I want you to get him some lunch."

"Miss Beifong, I...?" The guard seems incredibly puzzled. Zuko is even more confused, particularly at the sudden light and regal tone of the brusque girl.

"You work for me. So let him inside," says the girl proudly as Zuko's golden eyes are wide.

The guard hesitantly nods and gestures for Zuko to follow him. It takes the mystery girl a moment, but she follows. Zuko notices that, despite being out in the sharp gravel of her manor's courtyard, she is not wearing any shoes.

"Those are, uh, nice bushes," Zuko says weakly and Toph shakes her head slowly with a momentary twitch of her lips. "They're very... well kept."

He enters the mansion and is impressed. The style is entirely different from the palace where he grew up, but it is equally magnificent and expensive. Green, gold and ornate stone dominate the house. The portraits must be worth a fortune. Zuko's experience with the Earth Kingdom has been decrepit mining towns and underground tunnels, not something that looks like it was ripped out of Caldera.

"This is nice," Zuko says and Toph cannot suppress her laughter this time.

"Okay, complimenting my parents _interior decorating _skills isn't going to stop us from handing you over to the Fire Nation," she says, finding that she likes this kid. He is dumb and that entertains her.

"You're not going to, are you?" Zuko asks, a rush of panic in his chest.

"Maybe." Toph shrugs with a small smirk. Of course they will not hand him over, but she likes to keep people on their toes. His increased heart rate _is _a little depressing, and so Toph betrays her fun side and says, "We're not going to hand you over to the Fire Nation. Relax, Twitchy."

"What?" Zuko examines his hands and sees them trembling. "How do you see that?"

And then he blushes nearly as red as his scar. He should not have pointed out that she was blind. But she just shrugs it off as the guard leads them to a main room in the house. Two well dressed adults are sitting on chairs, that, if ablaze, would remind him of the Fire Nation throne room.

"Who...?" Lao Beifong inquires, narrowing his eyes. He looks to the guard and the man simply shrugs. "Why is there a ruffian in my home?"

Zuko looks at his filthy clothes. He _does _fit the definition of ruffian at this point, as much as he would rather be seen as a prince.

"He jumped over the wall," Toph says kindly, her tone shifting drastically again. Zuko is not sure what to make of her. To him, she was brusque and blunt, to the guards, she was more regal than Azula, and to her parents, she has a soft voice of a weak woman. Baffling. "He's hiding from the Fire Nation soldiers and I couldn't let him get hurt without taking him to you first."

Zuko has never been more confused. But the woman's expression softens at the sight of Zuko and the man studies the prince closely.

"What's your name, boy?" Lao inquires as Poppy purses her lips.

"Lee," Zuko says and Toph cocks an eyebrow without meaning to.

He is lying.

* * *

Ty Lee lies awake at night thinking about Azula's words. _Some parents aren't worth loving_. There clearly is a good deal to her, beneath the surface of glossy charm and stolid golden eyes. And Ty Lee wants to uncover it, as much as she is certain that will get her killed.

She can hear Azula talking to Mai in the other room. They are laughing and Ty Lee briefly wonders what it would be like to make Azula laugh. If it would feel nice or bad. She is entirely unsure.

While Ty Lee is not the sharpest stone in the pile, she does have a tendency to analyze people. And usually, she is right. And she is not just talking about auras. But Princess Azula is impossibly enigmatic, and her reasoning for rescuing Ty Lee is baffling. And then her willingness to kill Ty Lee after they were attacked.

Princess Azula is confusing in the worst way. The kind of way that involves a sexual attraction that neither of them can deny, but neither will ever mention.

And now she owes her some kind of life debt. It concerns Ty Lee on a number of levels. Owing things to the Fire Nation Princess is not a good position to be in. Owing your life to someone who gladly will take it from you, that is worrying. And being indebted in a way that is nearly possibly to pay off is troubling.

The door pushes open and Ty Lee sits straight up in surprise. It is Azula and Ty Lee realizes that she and Mai's room has become silent, but Ty Lee was so lost in her thoughts that she did not notice.

"What are you up to?" Azula asks, running her fingers along the frame of the door. Ty Lee feels a momentary flicker of fear. "Hm?"

"Trying... to sleep." Ty Lee slides further under the blankets but her arms are still freckled with goosebumps. Azula gently kicks the door shut and walks further inside. "But I can stay awake if you want me too."

Her bubbly tone has popped and is now dark and slow. Azula eyes her prisoner closely, intrigued by her. She touches Ty Lee's ankle gently with the tips of her fingernails and Ty Lee's leg shoots up, her knee nearly colliding with her own chin. Azula tries not to laugh.

"I'm not here to fuck you," Azula says and Ty Lee pretends she knew all along. But Azula made it feel as if it was going in that direction. "Do you have siblings?"

"A lot." The room is very quiet after that. Ty Lee squints in the shadows and tries to see Azula more fully, but it is futile. She is just a slender figure in the distorted darkness. "I always wanted to be an individual."

"So you became a thief?" Princess Azula seems unnaturally interested in Ty Lee's life.

For someone who is taking her as an advantageous addition and a slave... it feels abnormal. Something about Princess Azula's hazy hue-shifting aura makes Ty Lee uneasy. She is unpredictable and serpentine. Ty Lee prefers the crystalline clear and blunt.

"I became a circus act. Then I ran away again and had to be a thief to feed myself," Ty Lee explains feebly. Azula simply studies her.

"What did you do in the circus?" Azula purrs, crawling further up on the bed. Ty Lee is both terrified and aroused and she does not know what to make of those complex feelings.

"I was an acrobat, and contortionist, and, well, sometimes I fed the animals."

"Dangerous animals?" Azula murmurs and Ty Lee is certain the princess is flirting with her at this point. But given the fact that she is a slave, it is quite uncomfortable. "I like dangerous animals."

"A lot of dangerous animals." Ty Lee's eyes sparkle when the moonlight hits them and Azula likes it. Her gold eyes gleam in the dark like the dangerous animals Ty Lee fed. "And I travelled."

"To dangerous places?" Azula draws out her tone and Ty Lee feels trapped. She feels as if she is suffocating in the best way.

"Yes. That's the only reason to travel, right?" Ty Lee replies sweetly. Azula finds it funny that such an innocent, girlish voice could say such twisted and bold things. "I had a weird childhood and I was all trapped so I decided to have fun."

"Stealing your way around the world." Azula seems strangely enamored with theft.

"This is really out of line so please forgive me princess, but why are you so interested in stealing?" Ty Lee asks curiously. She always thought of it as a necessary evil. Azula would never have to steal because everything already belongs to her. Fire Nation, Earth Kingdom, it _all _is hers.

"You want to know the best way to silently assert power over a man?" Azula asks, her tone shifting to strangely informative. Ty Lee is still disturbingly heated. "There are power positions and certain words and tones. But the small, simple way to do it, is to steal his food."

"His food?" Ty Lee is not sure if it is a joke or not. She has not heard Azula tell a joke in the two weeks she has known her and so she believes it is not.

"Yes. Taking food is taking power. That applies to basically anything someone thinks they need. But you grab a man's bowl of rice and you've taken his power," Azula says earnestly. "I guess that's my only experience with theft. I'm just interested in what made you think it was a good idea to try to pickpocket a princess."

"I didn't know you were a princess," Ty Lee whispers and Azula raises her right eyebrow.

"There was a royal procession. I was in expensive Fire Nation armor. The crown... don't you examine your marks?" Azula asks, clasping her hands over her stomach and lying down beside Ty Lee. Her breath intermingles with Ty Lee's and it feels sick but right.

"I aim high," is the only response Ty Lee can properly think of. Azula smiles. It always is with only half of her mouth. Always a smirk that expresses she has better things to do than smile, but she is amused nonetheless.

"Show me your circus act. You've shown me your stealing and you aren't very good at it, given I had to literally save your neck. So show me your circus act," Azula purrs and Ty Lee feels nervous. She is sweating despite the cold early spring night.

Ty Lee stands up.

* * *

_**Ten Years Ago**_

_ Six year old Ty Lee plays with her dolls in the pretty house. It belongs to her mother's sister and it is one of the nicest in the entire gross town. It almost is as pretty as the Fire Nation man's mansion. The governor who is in charge here._

_She has two dolls. Her siblings have the same amount or more, and Ty Lee does not care, because hers are hers. And none of them are playing with Ty Lee anyway._

_ Mother and her aunt are arguing. Repeating Ty Lee's father's name and another male name that Ty Lee does not recognize._

_ "It isn't my fault that my sister is a whore!" aunt screams and Ty Lee looks up, her circular eyes wide. _

_ Mother throws her champagne glass and it shatters on the stone floor. A piece of glass flicks against her aunt's ankle and her lip twists in rage. And mother runs._

_ Ty Lee finds her mother in the kitchen, drinking, chain smoking those pricey Fire Nation cigarettes and Ty Lee feebly asks her if she is okay._

_ "The world is going to break you, Ty."_

_ Those are the only words of mother's that Ty Lee truly remembers._

* * *

"Your name isn't Lee, is it?" Toph asks as soon as Lao and Poppy dismiss their daughter to show Zuko to the guest room.

He explained he was on the run for getting into trouble with soldiers, that he is not a thief or a criminal but an enemy of the Fire Lord. _'An enemy of my enemy is my friend,' _Lao Beifong had said, and offered Zuko a place to stay for the night. Earth Kingdom hospitality is something Zuko has come to respect over the years.

Zuko sighs. "How did you know?"

"I'm blind, but I see more than most people. Let's leave it at that for now." Toph is not exactly going to explain her second life as the Blind Bandit to a weird guy who will not even give out his real name.

"My name is Zuko."

"Fire Nation, huh?" Toph crosses her arms. Zuko is the most interesting thing that has ever happened to her.

"The Fire Nation Prince. Well, not anymore. I got banished," Zuko says. "You've probably seen the wanted pos─never mind, you definitely haven't."

"A banished prince? That is so cool," Toph says, grinning. Zuko does not understand this girl at all, and it is making him nervous. "So what did you do? Murder? Please say murder."

"Uh... I spoke out of turn in a war meeting," Zuko says and Toph's expression falls into a small snarl of disappointment.

"You just got way less cool, Twitchy." She crosses her arms and Zuko rubs his neck.

"I need to get back to the rebels and my uncle. Can you help me?"

Silence. Zuko's heart is in his throat.

"I can probably get you back to your rebel friends," Toph replies finally, leaning against the door to his room. Zuko does not know what to say. "I like you, Twitchy. So I'm going to go out on a limb for you. _Don't _make me regret it. Tonight I'm going to Earth Rumble Six."

"What?" Zuko asks, raising an eyebrow.

"It's an earthbending tournament. And the Fire Nation knows nothing about it. Probably somebody there is into the whole rebel thing," Toph says with a confident shrug.

"You compete in earthbending tournaments?" Zuko asks, stunned. Toph shrugs again. "You're... interesting."

Toph shakes her head with a small twitch of her lips. This guy is a joke. She kind of likes it.

"I know," Toph replies with a shrug. "I hope you're good at sneaking out, because if I get caught because of you, I'm burying you in a rockalanche."

Zuko nods before realizing she can't see that and says, "Thank you."

"Don't get mushy on me," Toph snaps and Zuko recoils, his neck tensed.

* * *

Azula wakes up and clears her mind. She isolates three goals she will accomplish, the first thing she does in the morning. Mai is beside her, rubbing her eyes and slowly waking with several loud yawns. It makes Azula want to punch her.

"Did you fuck the slave girl last night?" Mai asks Azula, interrupting the maps of Gaoling Azula was going over in her mind.

"Morning is my time to carefully think," Azula says sharply and Mai laughs.

"You did fuck her, huh?" Mai smirks for a moment before her expression once more becomes stolid and blank.

"I didn't fuck her. But I came close. Really close." Azula crosses her arms. "Now let me do my morning thinking, will you?"

Mai just shrugs.

Ty Lee wakes up and Azula is gone. It does not take her long to remember what happened last night. Her body feels strange after how it escalated from an act that left Azula unimpressed, to an act that left Azula afraid. They got very near sex when Azula pushed herself away and left the room wordlessly, leaving Ty Lee to hope her neck will not be slit.

It still feels as if she could be executed at any moment. And maybe Azula wants that.

But she is taken casually and calmly. Azula has Ty Lee shackled once more and they move closer to Gaoling. That is there goal, because the rebels were in a skirmish only a few days prior right outside of the city. Information about Zuko could so easily be there. And there is always the chance of stumbling upon even more intriguing developments, like the Earth Kingdom girl.

Azula feels slightly heavy as she walks. She keeps thinking about how once Mai passed out from a concoction of sleeping herbs, Azula crept into her prisoner's room. She let herself get drawn in to the spell. The craving in her is perfectly natural. She knows that despite her coldness, her power to rival a god and the fact that she knows very well she is a monster, she is a human, at least partially.

But she feels as if Ty Lee is important somehow. There was something in her eyes that made Azula stop the execution. She _knows _it. The princess _knows _she must have _something _to do with the war or Zuko or the Avatar, even if she is a firebender and not an earthbender. She _knows _because the alternative is that Azula made a drastic move based on her hormones.

Perhaps, like Mai said, she just saved a hot chick in hopes of scoring.

And that... that scares Azula.

Finally, they approach the city. The silence was getting uncomfortable.

"Well, here's Gaoling," Azula says, gesturing at the beautiful stone buildings and the Fire Nation flags.

Ty Lee nods, grateful that Azula is speaking instead of silently sitting upon her palanquin and occasionally looking at Ty Lee with clear thoughts of last night on her mind. Mai flicks a switchblade in anticipation, eager to do _something_. Mai has been getting quite bored of late.

And within the city, Zuko walks through the door to Earth Rumble Six.


	4. Earth Rumble Six

Azula realizes quickly that she and her posse will be unwanted within a city that is controlled by the Earth Kingdom. She watches from afar, contemplating her next move. Something inside of her _knows _that her brother is within the city of Gaoling.

He was last seen by soldiers pursuing him, and it is the hottest lead Azula has had yet.

"Tell me a story, Ty Lee," Azula snaps, the order scathing.

While she is the only person who addresses Ty Lee by name and not _prisoner_, something about how Azula looks at her makes her know Azula sees her as less than a person. It makes her wonder what she might have to go through now that she has an unpaid life debt to this princess. Ty Lee can only hope that helping her capture her brother will be enough to guarantee her release.

Ty Lee is certain Azula has a crush on her. It is pretty obvious to everyone. Ty Lee would usually love attention from a powerful person, but being the object of Azula's affections is genuinely scary at this point. Or maybe she is just a prisoner. Maybe.

"A real one or a fake one?" Ty Lee asks and Azula just shrugs, relaying that she does not care. "Alright, in this one town I stayed in after I first left the circus, there was this old story that went around. Apparently, back in the early colonies, there was this governor's daughter who fell in love with this common girl."

Azula is not paying attention, but Ty Lee keeps telling the story. Mai is hitting binoculars with the side of her hand as two runners are finding the girls Earth Kingdom clothes to try to sneak them into the town as young travelers.

"The common girl was going to be executed for theft," Ty Lee says honestly, and Azula's ears perk up slightly as she still is working for the infiltration of Gaoling. "But the governor's daughter pleaded with her father to spare her. He did. To repay her debt, she had to go away to work in coal mines, and the two girls would never see each other."

"Mhm." Azula is now bored. The _execution _part was interesting, but the forbidden love was not.

"But the governor's daughter was smart and knew her father was a liar. She knew he had planned to kill the common girl. So she and the common girl conspired to murder him," Ty Lee says and Azula looks up, now watching her instead of the town she hopes her brother is hiding in.

"Did they?" Azula asks, genuinely curious.

"Yes. They killed him, but they were caught." Silence. Not the happy ending Azula was imagining. "They strung them up in the town, the Fire Nation soldiers, and they were holding hands when they died."

"That's not a very pleasant story," Azula says quietly, cocking an eyebrow.

"They wanted to die on their own terms, or something. Being without each other was worse than death, or living the torture of uh, never mind..." Ty Lee's cheeks turn bright pink.

"The torture of living under the law of the Fire Nation," Azula finishes smoothly with a smirk. "The Earth Kingdom intrigues me. We give them _so much _but they demonize us. Repulsive. It's no wonder we rule the world."

Ty Lee nods. "You're probably right, princess." Silence. "I saw people executed once, hanged. It was for sleeping together even though she was Fire Nation and he was Earth Kingdom."

Her voice cracks slightly, ever so slightly. Azula instantly reads it in her eyes; Ty Lee _knew _those people who were hanged. And she begins to wonder if perhaps they were Ty Lee's parents, and she has not been forthcoming yet about her past.

"I saw someone executed. She was a nanny of mine, seeing as my father just passed me off to them as soon as my mother died. I told her a secret, she tried to get involved, and my father had me watch as she was burned alive," Azula says calmly, her voice not at all reflecting the horror of her words. Ty Lee is unnerved by it and picks at her fingers, itching to be free of the bonds she is in, both physical and metaphysical.

"Wow," Ty Lee mumbles, unsure what else to say.

They are interrupted by Azula's runners returning with the disguises. It relieves Ty Lee incredibly as she gets up and is unshackled, as she Mai, and Azula duck inside of a tank to get dressed.

Azula leads the way as Mai and Ty Lee follow her. Mai keeps her amber eyes on Ty Lee like a hawk, waiting for her to make a false move now that she is out of her handcuffs. It makes Ty Lee uncomfortable, even more uncomfortable than the clear sexual tension between Mai and Azula.

She just tries to smile and go with the flow, as she always does. As has always served her well in life. Azula and Mai approach the gates and have to wait for guards to shuffle in and out, all looking confused. The princess holds her tongue, although she would like to say some snide things that would make them cry.

"You told her about your nanny?" Mai whispers as Ty Lee has been absorbed into petting an ostrich-horse. "You don't just _tell _people things about your personal life or past."

"I felt like it," Azula says with a small shrug. "It isn't as if it's my darkest secret. I don't trust her Mai. Don't worry. I just find her intriguing and I kind of want to... I don't know."

Azula is spared from having to deal with Mai's suspicions about their prisoner when the guards finally get themselves together and greet Azula at the gate.

"My name is Chiaki and we're just here to visit relatives," Azula says, sounding seamlessly casual and innocent. Ty Lee is very impressed, looking up from her new animal friend to watch the princess work.

"How long?" the guard asks, already looking as if he thinks he is wasting his time.

"A day or two," Azula says without missing a beat and the guard nods.

"Go right in," he states before muttering something to himself about his job being pointless.

And the staff of Gaoling simply let the Princess of the Fire Nation inside of their walls. It is awfully depressing and pitiful. Azula wonders why they have even been at war for so long. The Fire Nation should have quenched out the dying flames of the Earth Kingdom long ago.

"Do you know where he is?" Ty Lee asks and Azula slowly shakes her head.

"No. But he's a very noticeable boy with a huge scar and I'm sure someone has seen him. Or at least we can find something in this town that implies where he went," Azula says confidently, leading the way into the bustling town.

Ty Lee looks around and for a second starts thinking about escape. It is a dangerous thought, but one that quickly consumes her. She is surrounded by such crowds of people that she probably could get away from Princess Azula and her life debt.

Maybe when they get deeper into the city... she can make a break for it. That would be ideal, she supposes. And so she walks very closely to Azula and tries to keep her at ease, to ensure that she can make her getaway.

Gaoling may be a blessing to the thief imprisoned by the princess.

* * *

Zuko walks into Earth Rumble Six with great discomfort. Toph seems to take it casually, and he still has yet to figure out this girl. She points at the seats without looking, which is still as strange to him as when he first saw it. Her blindness makes him feel clumsy around her, and then he feels uncomfortable.

Still, she seems pretty interesting. Unpredictable, if a bit scathing. Zuko does not know if he should trust her, but he does not have any other options if he is going to get back together with his uncle and the rest of the rebels.

"Okay, I'm going to go get changed, and I'm gonna try to find out if there's anyone who knows how to get you back to your friends," Toph says, walking away before he can ask any questions. He just slumps in his seat and decides watching an earthbending tournament is a welcome change from the grim reality of rebellion against an all powerful empire.

Zuko looks around as a man who he thinks has slathered some kind of oil all over his muscles declares the beginning of the tournament.

* * *

Meanwhile, outside, Azula, Mai and Ty Lee wander through the darkening streets of Gaoling. Ty Lee is thinking about her escape incessantly as they are on the trail. Azula has casually questioned a few people until she found that a boy with a scar was walking with a blind girl through the streets and drawing a good deal of attention.

"I hope that bribe worked," Mai groans as she sits down on a bench. "We could've just given some guy our money and he went and ratted on the Fire Nation girls."

"We'll be fine. Kitano will bring us Zuko, he will get paid, and all will work out," Azula says softly as Ty Lee thinks further about escape. "I promise."

She looks at the glance Mai and Azula exchange.

They must have been together once. Or close to it. And she does not know why she cares about that so much. There is nothing _attractive _about Azula, which is why Ty Lee is hoping to make a run for it.

Even if there is something appealing about a life with more purpose than money and street performances.

She silently waits, fidgeting and analyzing every escape route.

* * *

"You are..." Zuko is at a loss for words. He can only squint at Toph as she runs her fingers along her belt as if it is no big deal. "How... how are you so...?"

He just watched her wipe the floor with her opponents. Zuko has never been more shocked in his life as he watched her earthbend as if it were as easy as breathing.

She laughs, clearly amused by how flustered he is. Zuko is confused by this girl. Incredibly, incredibly confused by her.

"Because I'm blind I must be helpless, right?" Toph shrugs and shoves the belt at Zuko. He has to think quickly to catch it in his hands and not be shoved onto the ground by the force of her handing it to him. "It's yours. I've got a few. Okay, I found a guy who can help you get back to the rebels without the Fire Nation noticing. I'll take you to him."

Zuko clears his throat and follows her across the rocky, uneven ground and to the back rooms of the underground arena.

"Did you ever think about fighting the Fire Nation? You could do some real damage," Zuko says, stunned and Toph shrugs and swallows.

"My parents have no idea that I can bend like this. And I don't... just don't ask," Toph snaps, getting huffy by the end. She does not need this Fire Nation boy showing up and questioning her life and her decisions.

Zuko is expecting to be taken to one of the competitors, but instead he is shown a mousy young man with a mop of dark hair and a book in his hand that details equipment logs. The Boulder is showing off to two girls near the stone lockers, and Zuko and Toph find themselves in a shadowy corner with the man.

"This is my friend, Lee," Toph says firmly and the small man nods quickly, looking Zuko up and down. Zuko waves feebly. "The one I told you about."

The man nods. "I'm Kitano, and I can help you. As soon as the arena clears out, we'll go out through the back entrance and we'll make our way from there."

Zuko is unsure if he can trust Kitano, but he does trust Toph, even if he just met her. The people Zuko works with always tell him to be less trusting, but Zuko sometimes thinks the best in people, even if it is a fault. His uncle tells him never to lose that, and he values his uncle much more than the people they work with.

He sits down and looks at Toph, who is turning to leave.

"I've got to get home before my parents notice I'm missing. Good luck getting back to the rebels," she says and Zuko opens and closes his mouth before realizing she cannot see that he wants her to stay.

"Thanks for your help," he begrudgingly admits and Toph is gone.

He twiddles his thumbs and avoids strange looks from earthbenders until Kitano guides him out, sliding through the back entrance. His hands are shaking and Zuko watches with narrowed eyes.

"Why are you so nervous?" Zuko asks, but his question is answered by two large men he saw guarding Earth Rumble Six snapping handcuffs onto him. "What are you doing? I'm on your side!"

Kitano swallows and turns to face Zuko. "I'm on the side of who pays me the most."

Zuko grits his teeth as he looks around frantically for who could have paid for him. Soldiers, those opposing the rebels... someone sent by his father.

The truth is to revealed to be worse than what he imagined. "My, my you were surprisingly easy to catch."

"_Azula_." Silence. "What are you doing in the Earth Kingdom? Shouldn't father be keeping you safe at home?"

Azula makes herself seen, the moonlight reflecting on her skin and shining in her tightly tied hair. She smirks at him faintly as he breathes in deeply and tries to think of an escape.

"Father found out about your little rebel stunt and sent me to claim you. But not before you lead me right to your little fortress outside of Ba Sing Se," Azula murmurs sweetly and Zuko heats up his hands before rock is clamped onto him by the bodyguards. "Come on. It'll be fun."

"You can't do this," Zuko snarls, looking around frantically.

"Oh, yes I can." Azula steps forward at him and he flinches, but not before the ground shakes, the bodyguards hit the floor and Azula is sent backwards through the air, screaming.

The stone around his hands shatters and someone grabs his arm and pulls him up.

"Go, go," Toph says sharply and Zuko is bewildered.

Azula pushes herself up from the rubble of the street as two girls appear from behind her. Zuko squints and thinks one of them is Mai, but the other he does not recognize.

"Come on, Twitchy," Toph snarls with terrifying force and Zuko is snapped out of his stunned reverie.

He starts running with Toph as she clashes with Azula. The handcuffs are tight on his wrists as he ducks around trees and pedestrians as he and Toph are running towards the gates of the city. They are not too far away; they have a chance of beating Azula to them. A slim chance, but a chance.

Toph clashes with Azula, Zuko dodges knives and realizes it is definitely Mai who is helping Azula. Azula is absorbed in her blows as she fights. Mai is out once Toph hits her in the hand with a chunk of rock and she curses and stumbles to a stop.

Zuko loses sight of the other girl, but it is the last thing on his mind.

"Jump the fence, Twitchy," Toph says fiercely and Zuko nods, taking one look at Azula, and going.

Toph uproots the street as Azula starts to conjure lightning. She follows Zuko as the princess stumbles back, looking for a way over the rubble.

Mai catches up to Azula and the princess examines her.

"Okay, we lost them big time. We're not going to make any progress running through the forest all night," Mai says and Azula has to agree with her.

It would be ridiculous to expend that energy. The girl who saved Zuko is smart. Much smarter than Zuko.

"She's the Avatar. The blind girl is the Avatar," Azula says with fierce conviction, although they only saw the blind girl at Zuko's side bend earth. "She has to be."

Azula's leg moves as if she wants to run after them, but she realizes she has little hope of smashing her way through a wall of rock and making it through the winding forests, just as Mai says. She grits her teeth, glancing at Mai and hating how often her best childhood friend is right.

Azula turns to her left and sees that the girl beside her is no longer there.

"Mai," Azula snaps and Mai opens her eyes. She is slumped against the stone wall of an alleyway, catching her breath and rubbing her fingers. She thinks they might be broken. "Where's our prisoner? You were supposed to be watching her!"

"I'm sorry, princess, but I was a little preoccupied with my fingers being smashed into bits by flying rocks," Mai snarls before regretting it. "She can't have gotten far. Let's go."

Mai does not know why Azula did not _expect _Ty Lee to try to escape at some point. It is unlike the princess, who views everyone to be as slippery and untrustworthy as herself. But Mai holds her tongue and she and Azula start walking through the nearly empty streets.

They walk for some time, dodging pedestrians and wondering if they truly did lose the girl. Azula dips into an alleyway and walks before stopping. She holds up one hand when she hears rattling breath from behind discarded boxes and crumbled rocks.

Mai exchanges a glance and they both nod at each other.

"She's not worth it," Azula murmurs. "We have my brother and the Avatar to catch."

They turn and start to walk away, but Azula instantly whips around the second she hears a foot scuff against the ground. Ty Lee screams as two whips of blue fire come at her, and she kicks off of the wall and jumps onto the roof of the restaurant she was hiding behind.

Azula follows her up and Ty Lee starts to run, nearly dancing on air as she moves. The princess is incredibly impressed by the acrobatics and combat, and even more certain that there is more to this thief than she knows.

And so help her, the moment Azula has Ty Lee in chains, she will know _everything_, even if it takes hot blades and severed limbs.

She throws fire every which way, not caring that the people in the town will see her. Ty Lee leaps from the edge of a roof and Azula skids to a stop, catching herself just barely before falling. She can see the thief running and Azula takes a deep breath before jumping after her, barely steadying her fall with her flames, and continues to chase her.

When they reach the walls of the city, Ty Lee gasps for breath, wipes sweat from her face with her sleeve and jumps up the wall, grasping for anything. Her hand hits the top and she rolls to dodge fire coming at her full force.

Ty Lee is blinded by blue, loses her hold on the wall, and falls to the ground.

The next thing she sees is a pointed shoe on her chest, and long, slender leg above it.

"Don't even think about running again," Azula purrs, rage swelling inside of her.

Ty Lee closes her eyes as Azula handcuffs her and makes her escape before the citizens can apprehend the firebender burning down their buildings.

* * *

Toph bends rock into a variety of shapes until she finally makes one that undoes Zuko's handcuffs. He rubs his sore, chafed skin and looks at her closely.

They are in the woods outside of Gaoling, having barely escaped.

"Why did you come back for me?" Zuko asks, stunned.

"I had a bad feeling. So I guess Kitano got paid off by that girl?" Toph asks as she touches the ground and makes sure for the thousandth time they are not being followed.

"Did you know he would do that?"

"Not that he _would_, but a lot of people care more about money than a war. I sure do," Toph admits and Zuko just sighs and leans against the tree. "I'll take you to the rebels, I guess. We'll do better together than apart."

"Your parents, though..." Zuko asks, studying her. She clenches her jaw.

"I'll go home once I drop you off with your friends. It's not wrong of me to want to do something exciting for once. Because, Zuko, fighting that girl, the _chase_, saving your butt from those goons... it was the most fun I've had in a long time," Toph says. "But don't get too cozy, okay? What I say goes on this trip."

"Uh, of course." Zuko rubs his neck, yet again stunned.

He looks at the trail going towards the fortress, then towards Gaoling.

And now he realizes he has more to worry about than soldiers and bounties

Azula is after him.


	5. No Room for Error

A/N: There's some mild sexual content in this chapter, so be forewarned.

* * *

After Zuko and Toph escaped, the Fire Nation has set up camp outside of the forest. It is a labyrinth, according to those who know the area, and they need to be prepared if they are going to set out into it and find Zuko.

Azula and Mai are heatedly debating their prisoner, and her attempt at escape in Gaoling.

"I told you it was bad news to take a damned prisoner," Mai sighs, shrugging as if it is not a brutal act of betrayal. Azula is livid, and pacing outside of the light red tent that has their Earth Kingdom girl bound and waiting in.

"I just had this feeling she was important," Azula replies sharply, although she does not think she is even kidding herself at this point.

"You had a feeling she was hot," Mai says quietly and Azula groans. She is right and Azula hates it. And now she has to face the fact that _of course _Ty Lee was not staying with them of her own free will.

Azula grits her teeth and walks into the tent, summoning her courage and walking inside. Ty Lee is watching insects scurrying across the grass, not struggling against her bonds or even showing fear on her expression. The princess walks to her slowly, her eyes flickering up and down.

"You tried to run, huh?" is Azula's chilly question as she walks in.

Ty Lee looks at the table beside her that was left by the soldiers who slipped in and out. It is stacked with instruments of torture, and now Ty Lee has broken out into a sweat. Her wrists are clenched and, even with Azula's regular firebending lessons, she feels useless. If she could somehow wriggle free she could chi block Azula and escape again, but she thinks she would be caught by the myriad soldiers.

Azula stands in front of Ty Lee, looking her up and down. Her gold eyes pick apart Ty Lee like a predator examining its prey. Finally, she seizes a chair with a loud sound that makes Ty Lee squeak in fear, and sits down across from her. Her legs are open slightly and Ty Lee's eyes fall there before she realizes what she is doing and panics.

"Princess, I'm sorry," Ty Lee whispers, although she knows her fate is likely already sealed. "I panicked and ran and it was stupid. And now... you're going to have me killed, aren't you?"

"Hmm, perhaps," Azula replies, shrugging and tilting her elegant head to the side. "I haven't decided yet."

Ty Lee swallows and tries not to be so afraid. If she is going to die, she supposes that she is going to die. And if she is going to live a slave, she is going to live a slave. She believes in destiny, and that things _do _work out in the end, no matter what Princess Azula decides to do to her.

"Why did you save me the first time? The Fire Nation isn't famous for being merciful," Ty Lee whispers, deciding she has nothing to lose at this point. Azula will kill if she wants to kill her, and spare her if she wants to spare her.

Azula hesitates, contemplating her answer. She tries to tell herself that it was because she thought Ty Lee could be important to her cause.

_Because I thought she was pretty_, is all Azula can justify her actions with. It is a disappointing realization for a master of battle and intellect. To spare someone solely because they are attractive.

Ty Lee waits, barely blinking her luminescent eyes, before Azula answers her.

She answers by removing herself from her chair and touching her lips to Ty Lee's. The pickpocket's eyes flash wide in shock as Azula presses more fiercely, their teeth pressing together from the force.

Azula finally pulls away as Ty Lee is left breathless and concerned.

With the bitter realization of what she has done, Azula leaves the tent wordlessly.

* * *

Meanwhile, Zuko and Toph have been walking through the labyrinthine forest for hours. Zuko is getting exhausted, while Toph still looks at the top of her game. They have not spoken and Zuko is uncomfortably trying to think of a topic for conversation.

"So, uh, care to elaborate on the badass earthbending?" Zuko asks after nearly twenty silent minutes of walking with Toph.

Toph shrugs and Zuko rubs his neck. He clamps his mouth shut and just walks silently beside her, unsure what else to do to break the tension. Prince Zuko never was much of a social person, particularly with mysterious strangers.

"I guess we have a really long walk," Toph admits with a sigh. "I was born blind, but I've never had any problem seeing. I see with earthbending."

"With... earthbending?" Zuko truly was not sure how she had perfect vision but was clearly blind, but seeing with earthbending seems outlandish to him.

"It's why I don't wear shoes," she says, wriggling her toes even though she does not know if Zuko is looking or not. He is. He is staring at her, in fact, intrigued by what she is saying.

"That's... pretty incredible," Zuko has to admit and Toph just shrugs. "You're pretty talented."

"I know," Toph responds with a shrug.

Zuko tries not to groan. "You remind me of my sister."

Toph cocks an eyebrow. "You have a sister?"

"She's, uh," Zuko replies, rubbing his sore neck, "kind of the girl who attacked us."

He expects Toph to be angry, but she bursts into hysterical laughter. Zuko flushes a slight red as he tries to ignore the mild humiliation.

"She's good," Toph admits. "Not as good as me, though."

"You certainly don't lack confidence," Zuko remarks and Toph laughs again. He thinks he may be traveling with a crazy person, even if he owes her his life.

Toph keeps walking before asking, "So, don't take this as me being interested in you, Twitchy, but, you have a sister; do you have a girlfriend?"

"I don't know how I could _not _take that as you being interested in me," Zuko replies with a laugh and Toph makes a grunting sound out of annoyance. "Alright, alright. I... I _had _a girlfriend, I guess. For a little while. She was a rebel like me, and first she hated me, then we wound up together."

"The best kind of love story," Toph says and Zuko cannot tell if she is being sarcastic or not. "Alright, that was a boring answer. Tell me about your sister."

Zuko pauses. He does not think that Toph is going to be interested in his past with Azula, and how she was always better than him, how she was beloved and he was scorned. Like the Fire Nation, in the Earth Kingdom, discussing personal matters and feelings is frowned upon. In a time of endless war, machismo and strength are valued above all else.

"We don't get along," Zuko replies calmly.

"Well, I could tell that by her trying to burn you alive," Toph replies before shrugging and picking up her pace.

Zuko sighs and wonders what he has gotten himself into with this earthbender.

* * *

The afternoon after Azula kissed Ty Lee, Ty Lee studies Azula closely as she touches the spoon to her lips. It burns the chapped parts, but she opens her mouth and swallows without protesting, mostly because of the severe look in the princess's gold eyes.

"Why are you looking at me like that?" Azula demands, setting the spoon back into the bowl of soup. "It's your fault you're tied up, running away like that. You can't just _run _from the Fire Nation."

Ty Lee rubs her coral lips together. "I know that." There is an uncomfortable silence before Azula presses the spoon against Ty Lee's lips again. The pickpocket has no idea why the princess herself is feeding the prisoner, but she is not protesting.

"Princess," Ty Lee says after swallowing, feeling slightly uncomfortable. "I haven't been entirely honest with you about my parents or my past."

"Go on," Azula says, as she had expected as much. The cheating parent, it all... felt off.

"My mother was a firebender. She was the daughter of the governor of the colony I was born in, and then she ran off with my father, a miner, and had seven kids," Ty Lee admits weakly and Azula's eyes flash like gold in the cold sun. "But then my father died. And my mother moved back to live with her parents. I didn't really understand too much at the time."

They are silent for a moment. "So, you're half Fire Nation."

"Mhm," Ty Lee admits softly. "Not that it matters too much. I might as well be Earth Kingdom. Anyway, I wasn't raised by insurgents or thieves. I was raised by a man who was fully supportive of your grandfather and father, and that's what I still believe. But he hated me... because of what I am and... so I ran away to be wanted."

Azula hesitates. "I can understand why you would run. I never, of course, had that option, given that I am the sole viable heir of the Fire Nation. But it must have been hard being raised by someone who saw you as an abomination."

"Yes. That's why my firebending is a mess." Ty Lee fidgets slightly and the ropes burn against her skin. "And that's why I'm loyal to you and the Fire Nation. If I could strip away my Earth Kingdom heritage, I would."

The princess examines her for a long time.

"You know, you have a beautiful aura, princess," Ty Lee says and the dark tone she adopted when discussing her true heritage becomes the light, bubbly voice that Azula is baffled and intrigued by. "It's... commanding."

"I don't believe in auras," Azula replies with a shrug, hoping Ty Lee did not see the blush on her cheeks at the long, sweet compliment. Even if it was complimenting something that does not exist.

"Oh," Ty Lee says softly, again gazing at Azula. "I'm sorry I ran. I panicked... I..."

"You _are _a prisoner. And my judgment was poor. I am going to keep a much closer eye on you until we return to the Fire Nation," Azula purrs, setting down the soup and setting her hand on Ty Lee's aching knee.

"You're not executing me? Or leaving me in the woods to die?" Ty Lee is completely stunned, her already protuberant eyes wide and sparkling with hope.

"Oh, I'll do worse than that if you try to run from me again. Believe me," Azula says, her words suddenly very threatening. Ty Lee feels cold at the darkness in her tone. "But for now, you're mine, and I fully intend to bring you back to the Fire Nation, to remain mine. I did save you from being executed, after all. More than once now."

There is a silence as Ty Lee's heart pounds. She does not know what Princess Azula wants from her, but she is afraid that it is nothing good.

Azula leans forward and kisses Ty Lee on the lips, stunning her beyond belief.

The princess lingers for a moment, fighting the tingling arousal within her, and she finally breaks away. Ty Lee is left breathless and completely confused.

"Don't fuck up again, Earth Kingdom Girl," Azula purrs sweetly before leaving the tent.

Ty Lee could swear someone could see her heart thumping through her chest.

* * *

After a painfully long day of walking, Zuko and Toph lie down to go to sleep after Toph makes an impressive earth tent. Zuko has seen a couple of them made on the spot by Earth Kingdom soldiers, but this is definitely new.

Toph lies down and Zuko tends the fire for a few more moments before quenching it and removing the smoke from the air. He lies beside her, tugging at his clothes to try to make a blanket for himself in the cold Earth Kingdom night.

The earthbender is already fast asleep, as soon as her head hit the ground, but Zuko lies awake. His worries about Azula are consuming him, as are his concerns about his friends.

Azula after him means that father is taking the rebels more seriously than Zuko had thought. And that spells trouble for anyone who wants to see the Fire Nation brought down.

Being hunted by Azula gives Zuko chills, and he does not sleep a wink, knowing she must be hot on his trail by now.

* * *

That night, Azula feels the searing craving inside of her that forcing herself to sleep cannot satiate or silence. She turns to Mai, who is breathing steadily beside her but still not yet asleep. So... available, so... desirable. Maybe Azula is finding that she wants her slave more, but Mai has always been her true love.

Even if it is not as reciprocated as Azula would like it to be.

"I want you," Azula whispers into Mai's ear.

They are lying together in the dead of the night, waiting to go track Zuko further in the morning. Azula's fingertips run up and down Mai's arm, giving her goosebumps and making her shiver slightly. _Yes_, Mai wants it, but she also knows that it is a terrible idea, and she has resisted getting involved with Azula for a very long time.

Azula adds, "Just one night. It can't hurt."

Mai picks at her fingernails, unsure what to do. She thinks this is related to Azula's crush on the extremely distracting prisoner. It likely does. And Mai does not know what to do. She has never known what to do about she and Azula's complex feelings for each other.

"I... okay," Mai agrees, unsure if she should, but feeling the tension of the night just as much as Azula is. "I mean... don't get the wrong idea."

"It's just sex. I'm not stupid," Azula purrs, hot breath against Mai's skin. It makes her feel cold but hot as she touches her lips to Azula's and savors the taste.

Azula's lips run along her body as she rolls up Mai's shirt and Mai helps her pull it over her head. Mai has given in more times than she is proud of over the course of their hunt for Zuko. But tonight it feels slightly sick, because clearly Azula's infatuation with their Earth Kingdom prisoner is already starting to go so far.

Their bodies are rocked until their skin is red.

And when Azula sleeps, she dreams of her prisoner. Dreams of stripping off her clothes and dropping them into blazing blue fire, watching the muslin cloth incinerate. And then slipping onto her body and claiming it as her own. Her prisoner's body.

_Her prisoner_.

The princess gets out of bed, trying to ignore the dream that warmed her thighs, as Mai lies naked, sleeping peacefully, dresses herself, ties her hair into a topknot and goes to get to work on tracking Zuko through these sprawling woods that have any number of paths he could have taken. And with his Avatar friend, Azula knows she has a full plate.

The sexual satisfaction makes it easier, soothed the headache.

But Azula knows that now is when she must focus, if she is to succeed.


	6. I've Been Following You!

"Do you have any idea where we're going?" Zuko exclaims and birds vacate the trees.

"I've been following you," Toph replies, genuine laughter in her tone. She cannot believe this kid... _wow_. "Have you been _following me_?"

They are screwed and Toph cannot help but find it hilarious. The Fire Nation is trailing them as they are probably walking in circles in this labyrinth of a forest. Zuko growls in rage and Toph can feel heat of flames near her, feel the skip of a beat in his heart when he realizes that he is so _lost_.

"We're going to die in these woods," Zuko breathes and Toph can feel him slam against a tree and then sit down. She is still trying her best to contain her laughter ─ _okay_, pretending to be trying to contain it.

"It's an adventure!" Toph exclaims, genuinely thrilled by the prospect of being lost in the woods. Zuko is now _certain _that he is traveling with a crazy person, and being pursued by his sister and her dangerous crew of people who would tear him into bits for fun.

"Ugh. Let's... try to find a path," Zuko says, realizing he has to be the level headed person now. He has worked with a number of different people in his dealings with the rebels, and their madness is _nothing _compared to this pint sized rockalanche.

"_That _I can do, Twitchy," Toph says, kneeling down and touching the earth. He waits, hoping she is not messing with him, and then she nods her head to the side. "The earth is all paved a little ways to our left."

"_Thank you_," Zuko breathes, frustration seeping into his exasperated tone. He walks with Toph towards the paved path and he, thankfully, finds it. They start walking to wherever this path will take them, and Zuko just hopes it is not into the maw of something or someone dangerous.

"So, this wasn't a friendly banishment, was it?" Toph inquires, again asking invasive personal questions that the Fire Nation would not stand for. Zuko finds it odd that she is so sharp and rough, yet she seems to want to gut him for information like they are discussing the weather. "A _lotta _people seem to want you dead."

"You ask a lot of questions..." Zuko murmurs, squinting at her for a moment. The faster he gets to the rebels, the better.

Toph contemplates that accusation for a moment, supposing it _is _true. She happens to be quite curious about this Banished Prince Twitchy. Her parents forced her to be demure and weak and pretty. Now she is wandering the woods with an escaped convict, and her mouth is not sure how to catch up with her brain. It feels ridiculous, as excited for this shift in her life as she is.

"Alright, alright, let's make this... more interesting," Toph offers and Zuko groans quietly. "I ask you a question, you ask me a question. There. Happy. I mean, I have a right to know who I'm traveling with, particularly when he has a bunch of bloodthirsty soldiers after him."

"Yeah, okay," Zuko sighs, knowing he _is _asking a lot of her at this point. "Alright, it wasn't a friendly banishment. I publicly humiliated my father. There. Now tell me how you learned earthbending?"

"Badgerm─oh _no_." Toph stops and Zuko nearly has a heart attack. Her expression is suddenly gravely serious. "Why are all those people in chains?"

Zuko steps forward slightly, and sees what she is talking about.

They are at the precipice of a town, and in the middle of it, a slave auction is being held.

"It's a slave auction," Zuko says, kneeling in the foliage. Katara would damn force him to free them all, even if it meant they had to sleep in a cave for four days to hide from the soldiers and socialites.

"A... what?" Toph asks, baffled. She seemed so confident, casual, to the point of being annoying to Zuko. But she seems genuinely confused by the idea of slavery, and its prevalence.

"A _slave auction_. We should avoid them."

But then Zuko sighs. If he is going to get caught by Azula anyway...

* * *

"Hold this," Azula orders and Ty Lee obeys. Her fingers brush against Azula's as the stack of maps shifts into her hands and she feels a surge of electricity that she does not think has anything to do with lightning.

_Stupid, _Ty Lee reminds herself, _it is stupid to have a crush on your evil captor. Even when she is such a good kisser..._

They are in a disgustingly quaint little town in the middle of the forest. If you could _call it _a town. It rests in a clearing, and the most civilized portion of it is a mill on the river, and the rest is just a few houses and an inn for travelers.

Azula waits impatiently with Mai and Ty Lee at her sides as her men question all of the inhabitants and place the insignificant town on lockdown to see if anyone has seen Zuko and the Avatar.

Boredom, boredom.

* * *

In a bunker near Ba Sing Se, Katara, Sokka and Suki are sitting at the kiddy table and all griping about it. And Katara is annoyed that Zuko is not here griping as well, and being as whiny as usual. She cannot believe she _misses _his whining.

"Zuko's been gone for a long time," Katara murmurs, sipping her tea and finding it more bitter than usual.

The Water Tribe was not large on _tea_. Warm drinks were common of course in the frigid tundra, but warm drinks were not made with these herbs that would cost your whole left jaw and your firstborn child in the Southern Water Tribe but are a copper piece a dozen in the Earth Kingdom.

"Well, I'm sorry that your boyfriend isn't back yet," Sokka bristles and Katara rolls her cobalt eyes. And then he sees the look of concern in the eyes of the man who has just handed Katara her tea. "I'm sure Zuko is okay. He's not that smart, but he's quick and knows the ground."

Iroh shrugs. He does not know what else to do but shrug, seeing as he and the other leaders got the news that Zuko is being _pursued_ and possibly is in the company of the Avatar. Iroh felt it unnecessary to tell Sokka and Katara about it, until their father decided they should know.

There are many reports of Avatars, and they only serve to let people down when they get their hopes up. The report of who is _pursuing _Zuko, is of no interest to the peoples of the Water Tribe and Earth Kingdom, but it is what is making Iroh genuinely nervous.

Azula being sent after Zuko means that Ozai is taking Zuko seriously.

And for a long time, Ozai not considering Zuko a threat was the only thing that protected the boy.

Iroh sips from his own cup of tea, and finds he has left it unattended so long that it has become cold.

* * *

It has been two hours of investigating this podunk town, and Azula is about to burn it all to the ground. But she must be patient if she is to catch her prey... _ugh_. Patience is not bred into royalty.

"Ty Lee, want to practice your firebending?" Azula sighs, studying her fingernails.

"Yes," Ty Lee says, fearing that she sounds too eager. Azula takes her and Mai inhales sharply.

This crush of Azula's is going to be pricey, and Mai knows it. And _everyone _knows it. Last night Azula had her best man sent back to the fucking Fire Nation because he told her they should ship their Earth Kingdom girl to a prison instead of drag her along with them.

It is... worrying.

"Uh," Ty Lee says as Azula loosens her bonds and situates them near the water, "why are you fighting so hard to keep me?"

"You are in no position to ask," Azula says sharply as she cracks her knuckles. "I am a deity and you are an _insect_. So keep your mouth shut and let me teach you how to make a small fireball."

Ty Lee blinks once, now immensely confused. But she quietly obeys, enjoying her lesson.

Noticing how Azula's cheeks flush ever so slightly when their skin touches, and becoming gradually more and more confused by the nature of her relationship with the princess.

This is _weird_.

* * *

Night has fallen and the town has proven fruitless. Azula is testy, everyone around her is utterly terrified. And now they travel to find a campsite and to pick up the trail of Zuko again.

"Uh, Mai," the prisoner says and Mai looks at her, cocking an eyebrow. Mai does not seem to want to hear it. "Do you think... do you think Azula... _likes me_?"

Mai laughs and it is a terrifying sound to Ty Lee. She may have only known Mai for a few weeks, but she has yet to hear her laugh. The sound itself it pretty, but it gives the sensation of razors scraping along Ty Lee's skin, peeling her open and mocking her insides.

"_Likes you_? That's absurd. Come on now, really?" Mai says, and she does not know _why _she says it. Azula _does _like Ty Lee, and it is completely going to get them killed at some point. But Mai... hm, she is not quite sure. Perhaps just to see the look on the face of the girl who is causing her so much trouble.

Mai is not a very nice girl; you have to be that way to keep up with Azula, who went through friends like cheap candles. She feels a small twinge of regret for lying to their prisoner and sighs, stopping short of correcting herself because Ty Lee has already started walking ahead, talking to a soldier boy who looks immensely into her.

That night, Ty Lee sits and looks at the sky for a long time. They are deep in this abysmal forest, and Azula is making minute annotations on a map with Mai at her side, and Ty Lee glares at them and does not know why she glares at them. Or the way their hips touch for a moment and they do not yank away from each other. In fact, they _get closer_.

Azula's eyes coast over Ty Lee as she walks to her tent and Ty Lee wonders if she will come over, like she has the past several nights, but she just keeps walking and disappears beneath the rouge canvas.

Mai contemplates following Azula for a moment before changing her mind and walking to Ty Lee.

"Hey..." Mai says and Ty Lee purses her lips. She would rather deal with the obnoxiously horny second guard over her or the man who kept insisting to Azula that keeping Ty Lee alive was a waste of resources. "I... about what you asked me earlier when we were walking..."

"No, I understand," Ty Lee says coldly, her girlish voice sharp now. "She's a princess, I'm a thief, it doesn't exist outside of banned fairy tales."

Mai rubs her lips together. "Okay, there's a reason she's keeping you alive despite everyone expressing their anger about it." Silence. "Azula doesn't... uh... do people so well. When we were kids, she had these friends, Shilu and Teng. They were twin girls and daughters of one of her Fire Lord Azulon's young advisors."

"...and?" Ty Lee looks at Mai, unsure what to make of this abrupt olive branch.

"I didn't ever meet them, but I was told the story before they made me be friends with her. They were meant to be friends with she and Zuko or whatever. Anyway, she would only let one of them play with her at once, and sometimes not at all. They used to go home with scratches on their faces, crying to their mother. A little tyrant, she was. Anyway, Shilu... or maybe Teng... hm... one of them, decided they were going to be clever, right?"

"Right?" Ty Lee suggests, uncertain she likes where this story is going.

"So they decided to, uh, set the ground rules for Azula. She did not like that one bit." Pause. "Well, that time they didn't go home with scratches on their faces. Their family was handed a chunk of land in the colonies and they lost half their noble titles because of whatever Azula told her grandfather."

Ty Lee's eyes widen briefly in horror. Mai just chuckles at the story.

"Is that true?" the acrobat whispers nervously.

"Yeah, they told me that. I was engaged to Zuko as a little kid, and I spent a lot of time at the palace. Eventually, Azula and I got close. People were understandably amazed that I lived through childhood." Silence. Mai scratches at her lip for a moment. "What I'm trying to say is that she's completely insane and horrible, and doesn't express affection like normal people. So, just take the fact that you're not dead yet as a sign of her liking you."

Ty Lee furrows her brow for a moment. "Thank you, Mai."

"So, uh, don't even _think _about breaking her cold, black heart. Because I will peel off your skin." Mai stands up and is gone, leaving Ty Lee incredibly confused.

Now, not killing someone is not an excellent sign of _love_ or _friendship_. But this _is _the Fire Nation, and Ty Lee supposes she will take what she can get.

* * *

Azula wakes up naked with Mai again. She did not intend for that, but it is doing a good job of culling her confusing desires for their prisoner. And then she blinks several times as she sees Commander Xiao knocking on the thick canvas.

The princess swiftly scrounges up clothes and walks to face him.

"Your brother and the, uh, the Avatar, have just been found. They liberated slaves in Deng Gaung City. If we move quickly, we can likely catch them." He bows hastily, and is gone as Azula walks to find her armor.

Mai gets up, having heard the news, and starts preparing alongside Azula.

Her thoughts echo for a moment with her conversation with the Earth Kingdom girl. Azula kept murmuring her name in her sleep, jumbled with Zuko's and her father's, of course, but the whole _Ty Lee _thing is pretty new.

_It doesn't exist out of banned fairy tales._


	7. Revelation

Zuko has no clue why he thought liberating slaves was a good idea. And now he is running as fast as he possibly can from a number of soldiers, the girl beside him laughing between gasps for breath. He skids to a stop in front of another patch of endless forest, and decides he would rather continue walking in the maze of woods than be skewered by one of those soldiers weapons, so he dives inside, Toph following him closely.

They continue running, through never-ending forest, and Zuko realizes he has never seen so much wilderness untouched. That begins to worry him. While he knows he is wanted the world over and towns are dangerous, he does not like the idea of dying in the woods.

"We have to stop here," Toph breathes, leaning against a tree.

"Why? They're probably still behind us." Zuko glances to each side anxiously.

"We're going to run out of energy if we keep going and going," Toph insists and Zuko knows that she has a point. "_Plus_, we're ten kinds of lost, _thank you_."

"It's not my fault!" Zuko snaps and Toph just smirks at his anger. "_You _acted like you knew where we were going!"

"Shut up, Twitchy. You didn't give me much of a choice to come with you. You would've been dead if I didn't save your butt from your sister," Toph says sharply and Zuko sighs. She has a point.

"You remind me of my sister..." Zuko mutters to himself and Toph clears her throat. "What? You're a powerful bender, incredibly overconfident, cruel to others, superiority complex."

"Yeah, we look alike too," Toph grumbles, gritting her teeth.

"No you don─_oh_," Zuko says with a roll of his eyes. "Okay, we're stuck together, and we should try to get along. Or there's no way we're getting out of these woods alive."

Toph nods. She wants to argue more, but Zuko has a point.

* * *

Meanwhile, Azula and her entourage are in the town Zuko and the Avatar left, interrogating scared citizens as Azula converses with the slaver who lost all of his merchandise. He is a rude man with blackened lips and yellowish eyes, and he is trying not to look intimidated by the small teenage girl in front of him.

But he is. And she knows he is.

"They fled the town," the pissed off slaver informs Azula and the soldiers around her.

"What's the fastest way to catch them?" Azula demands, giving him a look that makes him very nervous.

"By ship along the river. It comes to an opening that's the only way out of these woods. Not a town for miles and miles. All wilderness," the slaver says, his tone in slight awe of how nature prevails despite the ravaging of the land by the Fire Nation. "I wouldn't advise trying to walk through this forest. It's long as fuck, and goes on forever. The local Earth Kingdom trash say it's where people just go to die."

Azula purses her lips and then thinks it through carefully. "General Tao, procure me a ship from my father."

General Tao nods and goes to find a messenger hawk.

* * *

In the Fire Nation, Ozai is on his throne, the flames masking most of his face. He looks down at the man kneeling before him, a proud man, who is now so afraid his lips nearly touch the floor. It is a pleasurable sensation for the Fire Lord to watch him grovel.

"I've given my daughter her resources, her ship... but I didn't expect her to find the Avatar. Zuko was one thing; she can manage that job. But the Avatar is worth much, much more than my disappointment of a son. You are to follow Azula and make sure the Avatar is secured if she cannot manage."

Ozai does believe in his daughter. She is a weapon of mass destruction, and he has had her trained since she was young to be one of his greatest assets. _However_, she is just one woman, and a young woman with little knowledge of the world outside of the palace walls.

"Of course, your highness," General Zhao says and Ozai pauses.

"I'm promoting you, as a little incentive to find me the Avatar," Ozai says smoothly and Zhao's eyes light up. People are so easy to play.

_Admiral Zhao _does not sound half bad.

* * *

Ty Lee does not at all like being chained up on a lower deck of a ship. Sure, the probability of it sinking is fairly low. It probably is about as likely as getting hit by lightning. But she can feel the ship rocking uncomfortably with the fast tides of the river, _and _can feel the rain pounding down and the gales of wind ripping through the endless trees.

She will openly admit that it's unlikely the ship will sink in a river, but it still makes her heart pound. Mai has been delegated to watching her, and she is chewing on the inside of her cheek and flipping a switchblade.

_Click, click, click, snap, click, click..._

"Please stop," Ty Lee breathes desperately, looking at Mai with pleading, sparkling eyes. They remind Mai of a little baby koala sheep. It sickens her to the core.

"I'm bored. If you want me to stop, entertain me," Mai says and Ty Lee just rolls her eyes and sinks further against the pipes she is shackled to. "No? Alright."

_Click, click, click, snap, click, click..._

Ty Lee grits her teeth and kicks a pipe, only succeeding in making a deafening banging sound and injuring her toe. She leans back and sighs as the door opens and she is finally relieved from what feels like water torture.

But it is Azula, which does not make this any better.

"Mai, go... do something," Azula orders and Mai just shrugs, flicking her switchblade shut and sliding it into her bra before exiting the small room.

Azula walks slowly to her prisoner and studies her for a moment, examining her every feature. It makes Ty Lee feel like she has been stripped bare, and she leans uncomfortably against the searing pipes, burning her back in a way that is almost pleasurable.

"I wanted to talk to you before we capture my brother and return to the Fire Nation," Azula says softly and Ty Lee's eyes flash wide.

"W-what happens to me when you go back to the Fire Nation?" Ty Lee asks, unsure what to say or how to feel. "You'll set me free, right?"

Azula picks at her lips and takes hold of Ty Lee's handcuffs. She slides the chains up, up, up and Ty Lee thinks for a moment she is going to rip off her arms, but she lets her hang there, dangling. Her feet touch the ground enough to push on it, but she still is far too suspended for her own comfort.

"You owe me a debt, you see, for saving your life," Azula says, looking at her trembling limbs. "When it's repaid, I will _contemplate _releasing you. I could return with you to the Fire Nation and your life would be far improved from what made you resort to petty thievery and performing on the streets."

_As a slave doesn't sound so pleasant_, Ty Lee thinks to herself, but she inhales slowly and does not respond to the princess.

Azula leans forward slightly, possessed by something she does not quite understand. Her thigh rests on the inside of Ty Lee's leg, and it feels good in the absolute worst way to Ty Lee. Ty Lee remembers the kiss, the stupid kiss that should not have been after she tried to escape. And Azula's lips are about to touch hers, her fingers sliding down, down, down past Ty Lee's navel until there is a sudden lurch of the ship and their bodies slam together.

The princess screams as she falls back, and Ty Lee's arms and wrists are ripped against the chains, making her bite her lip in pain.

Ty Lee figured that the chances of this were about as likely as being struck by lightning. But in Princess Azula's company, that probability greatly increases.

The water comes far too quickly; this is _moving _far too quickly. The door is flung open as Mai slips inside, reaching for Azula, whom is now drenched as the ship is... _sinking_. Sinking. Azula will have so many heads when this is over.

"Princess, come here," Mai demands, grabbing the doorknob and seizing Azula's hand. Last heir of the Fire Nation, cannot _drown_, is all that's going through Mai's head.

And then they are under. Mai swims up, gasping for breath. She looks around frantically for Azula, and she is distinctly not there. _Fuck, fuck, fuck..._

She is about to dive back under, feeling the metal of her variety of weapons weighing her down, when the water glows. _Glows_. Light blue, and at first Mai thinks it is Azula's fire, before realizing that fire cannot burn in water.

The glowing starts to fade, Mai dives down, but cannot see in the murky waves. She expects the corpse of their Earth Kingdom pet, and hopefully Azula is just stuck on something and Mai can free her. The princess knows how to swim and is _good _at it, because when she wants to learn something, she becomes the best at the expense of hours in the water on Ember Island, until her skin was raw from the salt water.

When the hull bursts, Mai thinks they are utterly screwed. She grabs on, holding, cursing every unlucky star that made this happen and...

Azula, Azula drifting out, in the arms of a girl bending water like Mai has never imagined, or seen in the pages of books about the Water Tribes. Pulsing forward on almost a tidal wave.

Their firebending accomplice is... also a waterbender, and Mai is just gasping for breath as water laps against her face and she tries to figure out how she is supposed to get out of this ship and to Azula without dying.

Rock rises from the floor of the river, jutting into the sky, the rush of wind, and Mai suddenly realizes that Azula was entirely on to something, and she passed it off as her dealing with copious hormones. The Earth Kingdom girl turns to Mai, her eyes glowing like the most terrifying thing Mai has ever seen in her life, and with a pulse of air, Mai is blown backwards, her last sight of airbending restoring the breath of the princess.

Mai is grabbed by a man's arm as she collides with a wall, sliding through the constantly deepening water.

And she is pulled to the surface, towards a lifeboat. She tries to pull back to the Avatar and Azula, not sure how to even fathom what she saw, but it is too late.

Azula is alive, but she is gone for now.

* * *

Ty Lee opens her eyes, washed up on the shore with no memory of how she got here onto the sandy, muddy banks of the river.

Ty Lee chokes and coughs and looks up at Azula. The princess is still unconscious, but breathing regularly. Her head hurts and her lips are sore and dry, and then she looks around her, and realizes the entourage that surrounded the princess and held her captive is not there. And she is soaking.

_And _the ship was sunk. She sits up, frantically looking around, tugging at the bonds on her wrists in utter frustration. The chain between the cuffs has broken, it broke during her escape, which she cannot remember no matter how hard she tries. Her skin scrapes against the metal and starts to chafe and bleed. Someone grabs her shoulder and she punches her wrists up, leaping to her feet to the response of a crush of cartilage and a high pitched scream.

"You _split _my _lip_!" Azula snarls, coughing and tasting vile, sweet blood.

"I'm-I'm sorry. I thought you were a pirate!" Ty Lee stammers in terror. Azula swallows, tries to breathe in and looks around. She is good at ignoring pain and has suffered a number of training injuries worse than a puncture on her lower lip.

"Well, we're on a river. And towns are near rivers, right? It shouldn't be too hard," the princess mutters, mostly to herself. "I don't have the key to those. We'll have to smash them. Or burn them..."

"Smash!" Ty Lee says shrilly and fiercely, not at all liking the idea of her hands erupting in misplaced blue fire. She would gladly take a few snapped bones over boils and blisters, like most Earth Kingdom citizens would.

"Okay," Azula says, trying to collect herself. Her heart is still pounding out of control as she tries to use her head, but finds it incredibly sore. It is then that Azula recalls what managed to get her to shore in the first place, and that she would have drowned were it not for air... air being forced into her, water being removed from her, earth still dripping and lined with river plants and dying fish... "_The earthbending girl isn't the Avatar_."

Ty Lee looks up, holding a rock she thinks can pry off the remnants of the handcuffs. Azula wipes the blood from her nose again, groaning at the pain and frustration. She sits down as Ty Lee repeatedly tries to hand her the rock.

"I knew it," Azula breathes, and she looks doubly terrifying with the blood dripping from her mouth. "I _knew _there was something about you other than being hot."

"I don't," Ty Lee whispers honestly. "I don't know what you're talking about."

Azula cocks an eyebrow. "And that wasn't the best waterbending I've ever seen? Don't try lying."

Ty Lee's eyes flash, as she genuinely has no idea what Azula is talking about. "Okay, if you're accusing _me _of being the Avatar..."

Azula studies her and is surprised to see that she is not lying. The princess wipes her lip and stands up, grabbing Ty Lee and pulling her forcibly to her feet.

"This is good. This is very good. You don't tell anyone, you understand? Or I will burn that pretty face of yours right off," Azula whispers in Ty Lee's ear, the hot breath against her neck giving her gooseflesh. "They all think that earthbending girl is the Avatar. I have the advantage. Come on, let's find a town."

The two of them walk into the woods, Ty Lee stunned, confused and Azula clinging to her.

"They're going to think I'm dead," Azula breathes, dabbing at her lip and wondering how she can fix it. "The last heir to the Fire Nation... _fuck_."

"Well, then they'll be really happy to see you when you show up alive," Ty Lee offers as brightly as she can, still terrified by this new revelation.

_She is the Avatar. The Avatar and she never knew, she thought she was a vagabond, thief and circus freak... but she's the Avatar. And she's the prisoner of the ruthless Fire Nation Princess... that is a slight downside._

"I can only hope," Azula purrs before burning the branches in front of them, quenching the flame before it spreads and searching for a trodden path.

Ty Lee follows, swallowing and trying to keep her head on straight.

* * *

"So... we lost Azula?" Mai says with a sigh, rolling her eyes. "Wonderful. Did she drown? Did you _drown _the last heir to the Fire Nation?"

"You saw the girl, she took her... she's probably... alive," stammers General Tao, dabbing his sweaty forehead with a cloth.

"_Probably _alive," Mai says, narrowing her eyes at him. "Mhm. You best _hope _she's alive or everyone here is executed for treason. I'll lead the search party in the woods, clearly, you aren't competent enough to get the princess onto a lifeboat, much less find her in the forest."

Mai knows that Azula is alive, but she thinks it will serve her well to keep these people suspended in anxiety for a while. She has no concern that they will inform Fire Lord Ozai, because only a lunatic would do that. Mai saw the Earth Kingdom girl bending four elements at once.

And she saw them going to shore, and a combination of Azula's remarkable will for survival, strong swimming and the Avatar at her side makes it almost absurd that she drowned.

Mai starts to prepare for her expedition into the forest.

* * *

Meanwhile, Zuko and Toph have set up camp for the night. They are still relatively livid at each other for the situation, but they sit around the small fire as the sun sets and things get cold. Zuko screams as Toph grabs him and leans against him.

"I'm just trying to get warm. Relax," Toph snaps and Zuko accepts the gesture. Katara... Katara quite liked that perk of dating a firebender before everything went wrong between them.

They hear voices in the woods and Zuko turns to Toph. "Can you make out who they are?"

"Girls... that's... _oh no_."

* * *

AN: I had a really hard time writing the ship sinking scene. I once was kayaking and it capsized, but that's really all I was going on, along with movies and a Wikipedia article. I hope it turned out okay.


	8. An Unpleasant Reunion

_**AN: **__News! I got a beta: FanfictionVillainess. Yay. She's great for real._

* * *

As night is beginning to fall, Mai looks up and down the beach, knowing deep down that Azula is alive.

"She's alive," Mai whispers to herself as she scours the beach with a blank expression, refusing to show that she has found several clues towards Azula's survival. And the _Avatar's _survival.

The soldiers and their adolescent female leader are scouring the beaches, and Mai has just found the wreckage of Azula and Ty Lee. Remnants of chains from Ty Lee's bonds, _blood_... but not enough blood to cause ample damage. Footprints. Shreds of Azula's clothes, shreds of green clothes. And they walked from here into the forest.

_The forest_. Fantastic.

Mai hates forests. Virulently despises them. Particularly creepy ones like this one, with trees that billow endlessly and emit strange moaning noises.

"What are the orders, Lady Mai?" asks General Tao and Mai does not even take a moment to savor the groveling of grown men.

"We have to go into the forest." Mai slips the evidence into her leather bag and gestures for her entourage to follow her.

_It would probably be easier just to burn the spirits forsaken forest down..._

* * *

In the sprawling, labyrinthine forest, Zuko and Toph pull apart from each other. She had been against him, taking his warmth, rather enjoying it as he felt incredibly awkward. As he remembered his girlfriend ─ well _ex _girlfriend ─ and wondered if he would ever make it back to her. And then they heard the faint sound of voices and the crackling of underbrush.

"Can you make out who they are?" Zuko whispers, grateful for Toph's spectacular hearing.

"Girls... that's... _oh no_. We need to start moving, and quietly," Toph replies, grabbing his wrist with surprising strength.

"Azula?" Zuko whispers as Toph stands up and starts walking, moving surprisingly quietly.

"I said _shush_," Toph hisses in response, grabbing Zuko's hand and tugging him along with her.

Through the thicket of trees, Azula is genuinely contemplating just burning the forest down.

"I feel dizzy," Azula says at last, leaning against a tree and wiping her sore lip again. It is stinging and still dripping blood. This is possibly the worst thing that has ever happened to her.

Ty Lee is still trying to cope with the fact that she has just discovered that she is the Avatar. Azula seems to be paying the revelation very little mind, further adding to Ty Lee's confusion about the princess and her complex motives.

"Azula," Ty Lee murmurs, reaching forward to the princess, "it's getting dark. And... I hear animals."

"You want to stop?" Azula scoffs, crossing her arms. "It's pointless anyway. This entire ordeal is fucking pointless."

She groans and then slides down the tree, letting the bark dig into her skin and catch on her tattered red clothes. And no fucking armor, or anything, nor a map of where is going or a way to contact anyone outside of this endless forest.

Ty Lee smiles faintly and Azula wants to slap it off of her face. It is at that moment that she realizes she has the Avatar in her clutches, and the Avatar saved her...

_No, no, Azula would have saved herself. _Her only leverage is the unpaid debt, and Azula being saved from drowning probably in a fair world _would _repay the debt Ty Lee owes. And Azula cannot have that, particularly now that she knows Ty Lee is her ticket to glory and dominion.

"Sit with me," Azula says softly and Ty Lee is not at all alarmed by her sudden, gentle tone. Ty Lee sits beside her, letting the side of their hips brush against each other. It feels nice to both of them, but neither will admit it.

"Can I talk to you?" Ty Lee asks softly and Azula just shrugs.

"Pointless either way," she answers regally and Ty Lee bites on her lip. And then thinks about how Azula's lower lip is so purplish and bruised.

"What are you going to do now that you have the Avatar?" Ty Lee whispers and Azula shrugs.

"I am currently more focused on getting out of this forest alive. If I'm dead, having the Avatar is pretty pointless," Azula replies with a haughty sigh. She rests her head on Ty Lee's shoulder and the acrobat appreciates the warmth.

"I want your warmth," Ty Lee says softly, abruptly in the night.

Azula's eyes flicker for a moment. "That's a very serious statement."

Ty Lee swallows, confused. "How? It's cold and you're warm."

"In the Fire Nation, claiming to want someone's warmth is claiming to... mm... never mind," Azula says and Ty Lee's gut twists with the desire to ask for what she said really meant, but she just leans into Azula and sleeps with her warmth surging through her body.

There is lurking fear, yes, about what Azula might do now that she has the Avatar, but it is silenced by the comfort of falling asleep together.

* * *

Mai carves another one of the intricate shapes into a noticeable tree, trying to make sure she can find her way back out if she has to. The metal digs deep and punctures the tree, making it bleed clear, sticky fluid. She carves her name, which is much more telling than the burn marks her incompetent helpmates suggested.

And then she takes a careful left turn, and, lo and behold, there's another tree with her name carved into it. The sap is dried on this one and she can only blankly stare at it, even though she is imagining hacking the tree to ribbons.

"We're going in circles, General Tao," Mai declares flatly, trying to stop herself from screaming. "Set up our camp."

Mai sighs and finds a quiet place alone to sit down, and no one dares to bother her. She was very overlooked by the macho soldiers and they were all stunned when she dove into a more powerful leadership position than Azula. But no one is arguing, because finding the princess is absolutely imperative if they do not want to die.

She opens her bag and withdraws what she found on the beach. Azula is alive, Azula is alive and Mai is now somehow tasked with tracking her down. In this forest, this horrible forest.

She just studies the broken chains and sighs a few times.

* * *

Ty Lee wakes up with leaves and mats in her hair, sand coarse on her body and mud beneath her fingernails. She is intertwined with the half-dressed most beautiful woman she has ever seen, and that both arouses and scares her. She lies there for a moment with Azula, just feeling her breathing, trying to time their breathing with each other.

But she realizes, oh how she realizes that she is in love with something that only wants to destroy her. Azula would hand her over to be tortured and imprisoned by the Fire Nation remorselessly and in an instant. Especially now that she is the Avatar.

Azula wakes slowly and Ty Lee quickly pretends not to have been gazing at her intently. At her creamy white skin and the way her shreds of clothing caress her form, how, in the cold, her nipples show, hard, through her slim shirt.

"Will you carry me?" Azula says as she realizes it is at last the morning, the daybreak filling her with strength but also making her realize how weak she is.

"Uh..." Ty Lee does not think she has a choice in this matter. So she takes the princess by her delicate but strong wrist and lifts her onto her back, contemplating holding her bridal style before thinking that may have even more implications than accidentally asking for her warmth.

She is an unwieldy person in more ways than one. Azula is difficult to manage and no one would ever argue with that. Although, she is lighter to carry than her personality is to deal with.

And Ty Lee thinks she is falling for her, which just makes things all the more terrifying.

But she carries Azula through the forest for some time, before ─

The scream is earsplitting. Azula leaps from Ty Lee's arms as she glances around for the source, her fists lighting up bright blue. Ty Lee's lips part in shock as she clenches her own fists, wondering why as the Avatar, she cannot properly bend a single element.

"That way," Azula says, seizing Ty Lee's shoulder and making her whimper as they run through the forest.

Meanwhile, Zuko and Toph hear the same scream. Toph rubs her ears from the pain of it; while it sounds loud to Zuko, it is even louder to her. They run as well, Toph trying to sense with her feet where the woman is, but she feels nothing. That makes her skin prickle, but she and Zuko have nowhere else to go.

Zuko skids to a stop, his feet pressing hard against the muddy ground and nearly tripping over a tree route as he looks at the two people across from he and Toph. It is the first time he has looked Azula right in the eyes in a long time, even after she jumped him in Gaoling.

"Was that screaming one of you?" Zuko asks, and the implication that they _caused _the screaming in someone else is strongly present in his tone.

Azula does not respond at first; she simply stares. "No," she at last says and no one moves.

"Zuko, this might be a good time to start running," hisses Toph but still, everyone is perfectly and absolutely still.

"You don't look so good," Zuko says and Toph grits her teeth.

"I only just almost drowned and now I'm lost in the forest," Azula says sharply, keeping her plan and her pleasure off of her bruised face. "We should work together."

Zuko makes a sound halfway between a laugh and a wheeze. "Are you kidding me?"

"No," Azula says softly before shrugging with one shoulder. "I simply don't want to die out here in the middle of the Earth Kingdom. It's your choice, though."

Zuko clears his throat. "I find it pretty hard to believe that you want to set aside our differences and _work together _to get out of the forest."

Azula just shrugs again.

And then Zuko continues with, "How did you get here and get separated from your entourage anyway?"

Azula opens her mouth to respond and Zuko shakes his head and points to Ty Lee. Well _fuck_. And Ty Lee gulps and tries to figure out how to answer.

"The ship capsized in a storm and we got to shore away from everybody else," Ty Lee says and Azula is impressed at how quickly she managed that.

"She's not lying," Toph says quietly and Azula's eyes narrow in on her in a way that makes Zuko uncomfortable.

"And how would you know?" Azula purrs.

"When people lie, their bodies have a physical reaction. And I can see it with my earthbending," Toph says and Azula cocks an eyebrow. Zuko, she notices, looks just as confused and startled. "And, to be honest, Twitchy, we're pretty lost."

Azula gazes at Zuko expectantly and he groans before nodding.

"So help me, Azula, if this is a trap..."

"You'll what? Tell mother on me?" Azula turns away as Zuko clenches his jaw and fights the urge to grab her by her hair and throw her to the ground, tugging Ty Lee by the arm and stepping into the woods.

Toph follows, keeping as intently focused on their tentative new companions as she can.

As Zuko, well, he just fumes, smoke rising from his fingers as he wishes this was all just a dream.

* * *

In the dead of the night, the four anxious companions sit around a fire Zuko lit. Azula gazes into it, although her eyes occasional flicker to her brother and his little friend. Ty Lee is braiding and unbraiding her hair repeatedly, trying not to be noticed.

Zuko looks at Toph and sees how her eyes are closed and she is clearly focused.

"Ty Lee, come on," Azula says abruptly, grabbing the Avatar by the arm. "We're going to get water. I'm dying of thirst. You two stay here."

"And what made you leader?" Zuko snarls, already bristling at her doling out orders.

Azula shrugs and replies, "Birth?"

She and Ty Lee are gone before Zuko can think of a response. They walk into the forest and Azula looks for a stream or anything, however, her military training did not account for this kind of scenario.

"I can't believe we're in this situation," Azula mutters in utter frustration as she and Ty Lee scour the dirt and jagged rocks for water.

"It is kind of unfortunate," Ty Lee remarks with a hopeful smile.

"You don't have anything _delightfully _perky and optimistic to say?" Azula asks sharply and Ty Lee frowns. "No, we're stuck. In the woods. To die."

"We can make it out."

"Yes, why don't you and your Avatar magic rescue us again?" Azula says and Ty Lee clenches her jaw. "And _Zuko_..."

"Aren't we looking for Zuko? Isn't that a good thing?" Ty Lee asks, scratching her head as her braid comes loose again and her hair falls around her body. "We have him now whether he likes it or not."

"We have it if we manage to _live_."

Azula hears a stream and grabs Ty Lee's arm tightly, tugging her along.

After Azula's biting comment and her disappearance, "Ohhh," Toph says with a small laugh and Zuko can only stare. "I don't even have words for how many unresolved issues are right here. I've been trying to think of a joke for two hours now but that was funny enough itself. What did you even do to each other? It has to be something good."

"I don't know. She exists, or something," Zuko grumbles and Toph smirks. "I'm at the point where I think I would rather die than rely on her to help us survive."

"Well, I don't want to die in the woods. You can feel free to leave," Toph says, shrugging and Zuko is utterly baffled by the fact that she does not seem to care at all.

"So, you can tell when people are lying?" Zuko asks.

"Yup," Toph replies and Zuko gazes intently at the woods where Azula and her friend disappeared.

"Keep that in mind," Zuko says darkly, thinking about how nice it will be to catch Azula in a lie for once.

Toph does not know what to make of it, or even if she should laugh. "Well, that was ominous and foreboding, Twitchy," is all she can say.

* * *

There are only two forests left remaining in the Earth Kingdom; _true _forests at least. And one swamp. And, somehow, somehow the one heir to the Fire Nation, the Avatar, the decoy Avatar _and _the most wanted man in the Fire Nation are all somewhere inside the most impenetrable blob of trees, animals and dangerous obstacles that exists.

This has to be some kind of cruel joke, and Mai has no clue what she did to deserve it.

"This storm is pretty ominous and foreboding," General Tao remarks to Mai as she sits down inside of the command tent. They are in a clearing in the forest, and the rain is pounding down around them and on the trees.

"I honestly could not be in any more misery," she says flatly and General Tao squints uncomfortably. She makes him nervous. The princess may be terrifying and powerful, but at least her face moves when she talks. "It is wet and cold and I think we are lost."

"We do have a few maps, you know," General Tao says hopefully and Mai glances at the one she has been throwing knives at.

"Yes, they make pretty good targets," Mai murmurs as General Tao stares at the throwing star embedded in the thick fabric of the tent. "We should follow that screaming we heard."

"Right," General Tao offers, clearing his throat. "I also got a... letter."

"Yes?" Mai replies.

"Admiral Zhao is requesting any and all information about the Avatar that Azula has been pursuing."

Mai's eyes flicker ever so slightly. "She's a small, blind, earthbending girl traveling with Zuko. That's what you told him, right?"

"Not yet..."

"Well, do it."

* * *

After four arguments between Zuko and Azula, and the decision of the sky to open up thunderously upon them, Azula and Ty Lee are leading the way as Zuko and Toph stroll behind. The forest never seems to end. _Never_.

"I am cold and I am wet and just kill me," Azula hisses as the water falling from the sky pours down, further drenching her.

"Uhh," Ty Lee says before grabbing a leaf and drying it on her clothes. She holds it over Azula's head like an umbrella.

"Why are you helping me?" Azula asks, cocking an eyebrow. "You should, by all means, be cozying up to Zuko and his rude little girlfriend so as to escape your inevitable fate at my hands."

"I, well, I... I actually kind of like you," Ty Lee offers brightly and Azula wonders what game she is playing.

No one has ever _liked _Azula, regardless of what Zuko was complaining about as it started raining. She isn't _liked_, she is feared and adored. And Ty Lee has been her prisoner since they first met.

"No, really. Why?" Azula demands and Ty Lee just blinks a few times. "What's your game? Because I will outwit you. You're not the brightest candle in the─"

Slightly damp lips touch Azula's, the leaf over her head fluttering to the foliage on the ground beneath her feet. _Mmm_. Ty Lee pulls away and Azula barely dares to open her eyes again.

"Ew, don't look, Toph!" And the harsh reality that Zuko is with Azula in her romantic survival situation suddenly sets in.

"I'll try not to," grumbles the blind girl in response, shaking her head slowly.


	9. Not Out of the Woods Yet

"So, you two are lovers?" Zuko asks, speeding ahead of Toph.

Azula wets her lips with her tongue, as if the rain is not drenching her enough. She thinks Zuko has just handed her a useful lie. The further Ty Lee seems from being the Avatar, the absolute better off Azula is.

"Yes," Azula says and Ty Lee forcibly hides her shocked expression. She has a very strong feeling that Azula is lying for a reason. "We're lovers."

"I would've pegged you for lesbian," Zuko remarks and Azula furrows her brow and pouts. It is an unattractive face, but one that certainly best describes her loathing.

"_You _don't know me, ZuZu. And you will _never _know me. So do not _pretend_."

Zuko is silent after that, realizing that teasing Azula is pointless and will only lead to more tension in the group. He may be hotheaded, and he may want to beat her now that he is stronger and trained by the rebels, but when the choice is between working with Azula and dying and rotting in these woods, he chooses being civil with his wicked little sister.

Two hours later, as they finally settle and decide to attempt to make a camp, Ty Lee is still relatively abuzz from she and Azula's kiss, and also horrified by the fact that she is the Avatar. It keeps haunting her, as she tries to pick her brain and figure out any signs that she might have missed.

There can't have been _no _warning about the fact that _she _is the Avatar.

The quartet has been trying to build shelter for what feels like an eternity. Ty Lee is drenched in mud, and quietly, masked by the trees, is trying to bend it to the best of her ability. She _must _have some talent with Earth, given that she was born into the earthbending cycle. But it seems that the only element she can just _barely _control is fire.

Maybe it is some kind of cruel joke. Or maybe the earthbending Avatar died very young... although that seems implausible to Ty Lee, given how close her birthday is to the loose time period in which Hama died in captivity.

"I'm going to get washed up," Ty Lee says to Azula, whom is occupied drying branches and melting loose metal and rock.

"You go," Azula says halfheartedly, waving a hand. And then she suddenly drops the heavy stick she is holding. "_Wait_... you don't run away. You're my prisoner."

It seems to hit her like a bolt of lightning, and Ty Lee tries not to feel so _victorious_. Has Princess Azula perhaps developed a bit a soft spot for the Avatar? Ty Lee hates to admit how much she would like that.

_No, Ty Lee, stupid! _she reminds herself in frustration. Azula is bad news. Azula pinned her to a wall in handcuffs and started making out with her. Azula kidnapped her and is keeping her in chains to use her for her own ends. _Do not fall in love with terrible people! No matter how sexy they are... She's probably a rapist or something, Ty Lee, not to mention she's _definitely _a murderer and a liar and cheat, and yes her lips are very desirable and warm and soft and silky but _she is a terrible, terrible person_. Stay away._

Azula does not seem to notice Ty Lee's internal rant as she clears her throat.

"We're going to clean up," Azula declares and there is yet another crash of fallen branches. Toph grunts in frustration at the absurd rivalry of these two siblings.

"I'm coming with you. There's no way I'm letting you two out of my sight. What if you decide to come back and kill us?" Zuko snarls and Azula rolls her eyes.

"Fine, come on. We're not hiding anything, brother," Azula snarls, her lip curled like an angry and jilted predator. But she allows Zuko to follow she and Ty Lee nonetheless.

Zuko stalks after Azula and Ty Lee through the woods, still looking angry somehow. Ty Lee is certain it is out of her place as prisoner to ask what she wants to say. _But_, she suddenly realizes with an audible gasp, _Zuko and Toph can't know that Ty Lee is Azula's prisoner. Because then they will know that she is the Avatar._

"So, Azula, love," Ty Lee begins and Azula's golden eyes flash in utter shock and revulsion. "Why do you and Zuko hate each other so much?"

"How dare you address me as..." And then Azula hesitates as she realizes what Ty Lee already has. Her lie... her lie was so _foolish _and Azula cannot believe she was so shortsighted as to use it. "I'm sorry; I just don't like to be called pet names in front of my brother."

"I'm sorry," Ty Lee says with a charming grin. Zuko narrows his eyes, his scar distorted by the change in facial expression. He glances between them and swallows a mixture of rain, mud and mucus that makes him queasy. "But what is it that makes you two hate each other?"

"Birth, I suppose," Azula remarks, shrugging. "Jealousy on his part. Father always said that I was born lucky and he was lucky to be born."

Zuko's fingertips smoke at that and Azula smirks like a Poison Fire Frog that just caught a particularly juicy spider-fly. But he inhales and exhales deeply, trying to calm himself with the scent of fresh rain as Uncle has taught him.

"You're not yelling, brother?" Azula continues, hoping she can taunt him into some kind of frenzy. It would certainly cheer her up as her teeth chatter with hypothermia and all she can taste is blood and dirt.

"I've grown a lot since I was _banished_," Zuko snarls and Azula shrugs in response with a tiny pout. "And I won't take that-that _bullshit _from _you_, alright? I'm not the only one who needs help surviving in these woods. In fact, I think I know _way _more about the Earth Kingdom wilderness than _you do_."

Azula blushes furiously with anger, but the cold water keeping her pallid does not reveal it to the two people walking alongside her.

"Of course," Azula purrs coldly, deciding to retain professionalism. She will show that she is _better _than Zuko, and that she does not retain stupid little grudges.

They reach a small, overflowing pond that looks clean enough. Azula is reluctant to wash herself in it, but she does feel crusty with blood from the crash and the dirt from their trek through the woods. Ty Lee immediately strips off her clothes, and Azula looks almost as shocked as her brother.

Ty Lee has to admit they have nearly the same face at her completely willingness to go skinny dipping in front of them. It is kind of funny, to be honest.

"Well, someone's never seen that before," Zuko manages to say as he averts his eyes.

Azula just blinks at him. "Trying to think about me and my sex life so you don't get a very uncomfortable boner?"

Zuko cringes and looks away from both she and Ty Lee. "That would not happen."

"Mhm..." Azula murmurs in disbelief as she swallows her anxiety and looks up at Ty Lee, whom has now entered the water and is thankfully concealed by the blue ripples and waves that nearly touch her chin.

"It's freezing!" screams Ty Lee as she dunks her head under to try to keep her entire body the same temperature.

Azula walks to the water slowly and washes off her skin without getting undress. Her eyes cannot help but flicker to Ty Lee once or twice, wondering if she is teasing Azula intentionally.

Their relationship is awfully complex for one built on slavery and owed debts.

* * *

Toph cracks rock in half and makes a shoddy earth tent, Azula cuts the wood with precise blue fire, and eventually, they have a pathetic excuse for a shelter that does little more than protect them from the rain. Azula shivers, having never been this cold or wet in her life. This is _not _how firebenders are supposed to feel.

"You look cold," whispers Ty Lee as the moonlight shines through the dripping cracks in the ceiling of the shelter. She wraps herself around Azula, her body smelling like springtime somehow, and the image of her naked body burned permanently into Azula's retinas.

And Azula thought she was the seductive, tantalizing tease, playing with her pet's desires.

_Not true, _although she never has to admit it. And she _never _intends to admit it.

They curl up together and Azula tries again and again to heat her skin with her bending. It works enough to stop her chattering teeth, but it does not transfer as much to Ty Lee as the prisoner is trying to steal.

_Or perhaps share_.

Azula has sensations she is unfamiliar with surging through her body, just as she has for Ty Lee for this entire time. They are uncontrollable, hormonal, the kind of thing adults warn you about if you ever want to be a great tactician or military leader.

_Or leader of an empire one day._

She has thoughts invading her mind, unable to wipe away. Azula has little knowledge of sex at all, but she does have enough of a grasp to realize exactly what she wants to do with the girl latched onto her. The girl who, once she falls asleep, winds up with her inner leg pressing against the inside of Azula's thigh, their hips touching each other.

Toph can feel them as she lies awake, trying to stifle her laughter. She has her feet pressed to the ground and her knees up, mostly because she intended to keep her sights on Azula in case she tried to slit Toph and Zuko's throats in their sleep, as Zuko seems to think she is likely to do.

But _instead_ she is feeling the heartbeat of awkward and uncomfortable arousal.

It makes her _really _want to laugh. Zuko's heartbeat is that of a calm, sleeping poodle-monkey, and Toph has to admit it fits for Twitchy. He acts _so _tough, but Toph thinks he is unconfident and afraid inside, which is pretty evident even after only a brief time knowing him.

She feels Azula's elbow brush against her and can sense the two bodies intertwined, and feel the heat they are sharing. Toph suddenly has vivid memories of sharing Zuko's heat in the woods, and how she was pretending that it was just for conserving warmth, but, admittedly, she really liked it.

It isn't as if the young, rich blind girl has boys lining up to rub up against her. Even if she _does _have almost as many of those desires as desires to kick the asses of every annoying person around her and reveal the earthbending she once had to hide.

And so, as Azula and Ty Lee are wrapped around each other, Toph carefully sidles up against Twitchy, trying to think of a good excuse in case he catches her. There is _no way _she is letting him think she is _remotely _interested in him. Toph is most content when everyone thinks that she considers them to be a complete loser that she enjoys mocking.

Which is true about Zuko. But she also kind of likes the feeling of his muscles.

_It isn't like there's anything _wrong _with that._

Zuko does not wake, and Toph does not try to wake him. They simply lie there, wrapped around each other.

The night is strange, cuddly and starlit as the rain finally slows down and drizzles to a stop. Relief as the sun rises, and the journey to try to escape the forest begins yet again.

* * *

Compromise. That is the word on everyone's mind as they sit around the feeble fire and try to figure out how they will gather food. Toph keeps her mouth clamped about the fact that she grew up in a mansion in Gaoling, and knows very little about the wilderness outside of what she can see with her own two feet.

Azula has no more knowledge than Toph, and Ty Lee is just as clueless. Zuko has a faint knowledge of the outdoors, but not nearly enough to feed their starving stomachs.

"There's no way we can keep walking without _something _to eat," Azula says fiercely, attempting to seize control of their camp. They need a _leader_, and there is no better leader than Princess Azula.

"Who made you in charge?" Zuko asks for the millionth time and Ty Lee rolls her eyes. The sibling rivalry is why everyone is thinking of the word _compromise_, because Azula and Zuko need to do something to settle their issues if the group is not going to _starve to death_.

"No one. But I don't think there is anyone else sitting around this fire who is nearly as qualified as me," Azula says sharply, crossing her arms. Zuko grits his teeth in anger, as Toph sucks in her cheeks and contemplates the situation.

"We could try hunting?" she suggests and Ty Lee makes a small whimpering sound. Azula pouts at her prisoner, wondering why she is so _soft_. The Avatar should not be that way. _Azula's Avatar _should not be such a little _wimp_.

"I could take down an animal, probably," Azula says sweetly and Zuko clears his throat loudly.

"I definitely could too," he snaps defensively and Azula just shrugs.

"I suppose it's a competition then," she admits casually before standing up. "To the woods, I suppose."

Zuko stands up as fiercely as possible, and follows Azula as she deserts the camp to attempt hunting.

* * *

Azula tries to remain hushed as she peers around. She climbed a tree, the bark scraping against her hands, and is now trying to watch with her trained eyes. If she learned how to survey the enemy, and how to fight in this kind of terrain, she _should _be able to decently catch an animal.

And she is _starving_. Azula does not think she has ever gone hungry in her life, and _Agni _is she hungry right now. It makes her feel dizzy as she clings to the tree with the last of her energy.

Zuko is elsewhere, making noise in the bushes. Azula can only hope he will frighten a few animals and send them in Azula's direction. She taps her fingers, waiting to light them, waiting to strike her prey with lightning directly through the eye.

Then they can _eat_. At last they can _eat_.

She is right about the sound, and as she remains hushed, the creatures come into view. At first Azula swallows, unsure if she can bring herself to do it. But then she imagines the fox-deer as an enemy soldier, and with a carefully timed bolt of lightning, it is dead in an instant.

Thankfully, while Azula may be cruel, drawing out the suffering of an animal is far different to her than drawing out the suffering of a human. She dismounts the tree and calls to her brother to help her carry the hulking animal back to their camp.

"You... _you can hunt_," Zuko snarls, his heart pounding with rage and his stomach acidic with envy already. He _hates _her. Zuko genuinely hates her more than he has hated anyone in his entire life. He knows he is hungry, but the idea that Azula was able to make a kill on her first try makes him viciously, vehemently, virulently livid.

"Soldier training is very useful," Azula purrs, winking at her brother as they work together to carry the weight.

Zuko just slowly shakes his head as Toph and Ty Lee are overwhelmed with joy about the food Azula brought.

The princess looks so self-satisfied that Zuko has the urge to punch her in the face. Her luck, her natural talents are ridiculous. Zuko supposes her only talents are those of murder, deceit and destruction, and therefore he supposes hunting would probably be in her repertoire, while most things wouldn't.

But that does not stop him from glaring.

* * *

After they eat, the entire group feels much more at ease. Azula and Ty Lee are lying in the shelter as Zuko and Toph go to search the perimeter for any signs of an exit from this labyrinth of trees. At first, the Avatar and Princess are in utter silence, but then Ty Lee turns onto her side.

"You liked seeing me naked, didn't you?" Ty Lee whispers and Azula purses her lips. "You did..."

"_Zuko _is not around. You are not permitted to pretend to be my lover, nor to speak to me with such a disrespectful and informal tone. You will address me in the formal manner a prisoner should," Azula recites coolly and Ty Lee rolls her eyes.

"I'll keep it in mind," she says, the glow from finally being fed and her clothes _finally _drying overwhelming her knowledge of how dangerous and remorseless Azula is.

Slowly, she touches two fingers right above Azula's pelvis, and gently walks them up her body, Azula trying to conceal her small gasp of pleasure. Ty Lee rests her fingers on Azula's breast, her heart starting to thud as she realizes how risky this is.

Impulsive. It is _so _impulsive. But, to Ty Lee's relief, Azula takes her hand and begins to guide it along her body with soft moans. Ty Lee swallows, never having done this before. She has made out with a few boys in her time, but she has never... done _this_.

Azula is slowly unraveling her shirt as Ty Lee waits with bated breath when Toph and Zuko return, and the hot, wet attempt at a tryst quickly ends and is replaced by their efforts for survival.

"We found a kind of trodden path," Toph announces. "Clean up the camp and let's get going!"

Ty Lee exchanges a small, seductive glance with her captor. She likes it, she likes how strong it made her feel to see the most powerful woman alive trembling in longing for nothing more than Ty Lee's fingertips against sensitive areas of her body.

And how she seems slightly dazed afterwards.

_Such beauty and strength._

Perhaps Ty Lee will manipulate her captor yet.


	10. Closer

"Tell me about you and Zuko," Ty Lee requests, not bothering that she is out of line. Until Azula escapes this forest, Ty Lee is not quite her prisoner anymore. "Please and humbly," Ty Lee adds nonetheless.

Azula clears her throat and rubs her arm, nervous habits. She does not seem to want to talk about it, as she watches Toph clear boulders out of their way as if they were pebbles, and Zuko follow her close behind with his eyes fixated on the path ahead.

"He's my brother," Azula says softly and Ty Lee's face shows that it is not a satisfactory answers. "We have a troubled past, evidently. Our father never loved him, and father adored and idolized me, and so Zuko became jealous and hateful. Then he was banished, and I don't think we even know each other anymore, save for remembering the reasons we have to hate each other."

"That's so sad," Ty Lee says weakly, studying her feet. Very sad.

"But mother coddled him and hated me. It balanced out, even if it screwed him in the end." Azula smiles, to Ty Lee's baffled confusion.

They catch up to Zuko and Toph, having no more to say to each other.

* * *

The sun falls before the path is fruitful in the slightest. Exhausted and discouraged, the four lost adolescents decide to set up another camp, and hope for the best. Zuko goes to set up snares, something he is actually competent at. Toph locks herself in a rock tent and closes herself in entire, grumbling about being too hungry, tired and angry to talk to any of the others.

Azula lies down on the makeshift shelter she and Ty Lee built. Her eyes are fixated on the stars through a crack in the ceiling of branches and leaves. Ty Lee curls up beside her after tending the fire to keep it going for a while longer.

"What element do you think you are, originally?" Azula asks, still stargazing, her voice having such lack of passion for a girl who has caught the elusive Avatar.

"Earth," Ty Lee admits openly before frowning. "Maybe fire. One of the two. Why does it matter?"

"I'm only curious," Azula whispers in response. "It does shift plans slightly, but seeing as you already have a grasp for earthbending and firebending, I can't imagine it will be too difficult if you were to try to master the others."

"Except for the fact that I don't have a living airbending teacher," Ty Lee points out sadly, resting her head on Azula's shoulder. The princess is warm in the ice cold night, and it makes Ty Lee's body purr in a very uncomfortable fashion.

"It doesn't matter. All I need is proof for when I turn you over to my father and bask in the glory of my conquest," Azula replies coldly and Ty Lee watches Azula with a slightly scrunched face. She wonders if there are any feelings between them, beside the sexual tension that they so long to break.

"Do you really want to do that?" Ty Lee whispers and Azula laughs dryly. "What? Do you?"

"Yes. Yes, I do. I plan on keeping you my little secret until I am in the throne room, standing before my father, however. If people were to know that you were the Avatar, I would suddenly gain a certain level of... competition," Azula breathes and Ty Lee exhales slowly.

Ty Lee glances up at the thatch ceiling. "What are you looking at?"

"The stars. They're stunning, don't you think? So clear on a night like this," Azula whispers and Ty Lee hates how romantic she finds it. She hates how her pulse speeds up and her skin breaks out into a light sweat when she thinks about the girl her body is pressed against.

"They _are_ pretty," Ty Lee says quietly, before realizing that she will probably be condemned to Caldera. That she might never see the stars like this ever again, for as long as she lives. Maybe in her next life, she will see the stars. Maybe in her next life, she will be able to correct her mistakes in this one. "I didn't know you had a taste for pretty things."

"I do," Azula replies softly, her eyes looking up and down Ty Lee's body quite on purpose, quite to make it evident that she finds Ty Lee beautiful. "But my standards are rather high."

Ty Lee does not realize how tightly her hips are pressed against Azula until the princess leans in to the contact. _Umph_, and there is unquenchable fire, and a forbidden touch that can only cause destruction in the Avatar's life.

Azula kisses Ty Lee on the lips, her fingers tracing patterns on her Avatar's back. Ty Lee strips off her muddy, tattered shirt, baring her smooth, peachy skin and flawless round breasts. In response, Azula touches her lips and kisses one of them.

Ty Lee grinds her hips into the princess, and they do regrettable things beneath the beautiful stars.

* * *

Late that night, Zuko returns from examining snares and scouting the path ahead of them, finding no food but an emaciated rabbit, and thinking that perhaps the dirt road goes on forever. When he arrives at camp, he sees his sister and Ty Lee fast asleep in the shelter.

Thankfully, they both are clothed at this point.

Then he sees Toph sitting in front of the fire, trying to get warm. The earthbender woke up from the peace, quiet and warm solitude of her earth tent when she suffered from a variety of fierce nightmares. Zuko sets the rabbit by the fire, intending to clean it after he talks to his new friend.

"Hey," Zuko says, staring at her.

Toph yawns and does not look back at him. But he does not expect her gaze, even though her eyes are so pretty beneath the cloudy exterior. They are a stunning shade of mint that Zuko sometimes catches himself staring at. Most often, he is trying to fathom what might be going on in her head.

"Hey," Toph replies bluntly, rubbing her sore feet. She likes that sensation, even if it for a moment makes her completely blind.

"The stars are incredible tonight," Zuko says before wanting to slap himself.

"I wouldn't know." Toph shrugs. She then snorts and tries to cover for her weakness. "Are you the kind of guy who likes to look at pretty, _poetic _things?"

Zuko rubs his chin. "I do like pretty things. But I'm not one of them."

"Why?" Toph asks. "You have a nice voice, and you smell good. And as aggravating as you can be, you seem to have your head on straight more than half of the time. Which is more than most people can say."

The Exiled Prince Zuko is astounded by the fact that Toph just _complimented _him. This journey through the woods is proving to be incredibly weird for everyone involved.

"I have a scar," Zuko admits and Toph snorts again, like he is such a joke. It makes him clench his jaw in anger.

"Everybody has scars."

"This one is bad. It covers my whole face," Zuko says sharply. "And _my father _did it to me."

Toph scratches her ear. "Quit your whining. We all have something that haunts us."

Zuko frowns. "I think that you're a really pretty thing."

And Toph laughs raucously at that.

She does not want or need to be a _pretty thing_. Even if she is pretty sure that it made her blush.

* * *

In the morning, the group picks up where they left off on the trail. Azula and Ty Lee are much closer to each other, Zuko notes, as they start walking. He wonders if they are plotting against he and Toph and it makes his stomach ache with worry.

Azula, however, is glowing. She feels much better, much more positive, much more _alive_, even though her breakfast was horrible, sinewy shreds of poorly cooked rabbit, and even though she might not escape these woods alive.

Perhaps last night did Azula more good than bad. Even if having sex with her prized Avatar could have been a very unwise mistake. It was far from strategic, at least.

They keep walking, looking for anything that could guide them anywhere.

And two hours into their walk, they stumble upon a ruin stretching above the trees. It was impossible to miss, and they all run to investigate it.

"What is this place?" Zuko asks in awe.

He looks at the ruins of the tall stone building that reaches for the sky. It once must have been stunningly beautiful, but now vines have crept up and consumed it, and the dirt has coated it to the point of hiding the ornate carvings.

Toph focuses on her feet, needed to furrow her brow in genuine thought. "There's nobody inside," she at last declares, "except for statues. A _lot _of statues."

Azula rubs her face. "Well, I guess that means this isn't where we can go for help escaping the forest." She crosses her arms and pouts her lips, and Ty Lee steps forward and starts moving towards the stone building.

"This place gives me a good vibe. I think we should look inside," Ty Lee says determinedly, turning to her companions and gesturing to the door.

Zuko bites his lip, reluctant about going into the creepy tunnel. Toph just shrugs, although she cannot see how decrepit and haunted the building looks. And Azula, well, she thinks that if the Avatar is having _vibes _about a place, it is worth checking out.

They walk to the front door and find it sealed with stone. Toph cracks her knuckles and brushes past the royal siblings and Avatar, and heaves it open with her bending, not even breaking a sweat or groaning from the force. Azula must admit that she is a prodigious bender with a rebellious streak and overconfidence. In another world, perhaps she and Azula could have worked together.

Zuko is impressed, but remains silent, not so sure about walking straight into this creepy place. It definitely gives him chills, but, again, looking like a coward in front of his sister is something that Zuko would rather die than do. And so he is the first one to plunge into the shadows, lighting his palm to illuminate the pitch black corridor.

Azula lights it better, and their combined fire makes it easy to see. There are carvings in a language that none of them understand; this place was clearly made by ancient people. They delve further into the darkness, although they doubt that the exit is this way.

Toph feels around, looking for anything lurking behind walls. And then she suddenly stops.

"There are people behind that door. _A lot _of them," Toph says and the group comes to a halt. Ty Lee nearly throws herself into Azula's arms in utter shock and horror. "But they're frozen... they're not... _they're statues_."

Azula remembers a story about a Fire Lord who had himself buried with thousands of warriors carved from stone. Statues to protect him from harm, and to display his prowess. But Azula has rarely thought about it, at least until today.

Perhaps this place is a tomb.

"We need to go inside," Azula says, walking further towards the ajar door. Zuko throws up his arms in frustration.

"No, we need to turn around because this place is creepy!" he shouts but Toph has already moved the door with her earthbending, and she, Azula and Ty Lee walk inside.

Zuko hesitates, and then realizes he does not want to be left alone in the creepy tunnel, and so he follows them.

Azula, Zuko and Ty Lee examine the stone figures. They are not warriors, but they certainly are carved like heroes. It is only when Azula realizes the pattern that she breathes, "These are Avatars. These are all of the Avatars."

She points, finding Roku and empty slot for an airbender, there _is _a carving of Hama, but it is much cruder than the others, and must have been shaped in secret away from the prying eyes of the Fire Nation.

"They're beautiful," Ty Lee remarks quietly, touching her hand to the stone Hama's arm.

And then Azula screams in shock, Zuko and even Toph following her shrieks. The eyes glow; all of the eyes are glowing like Ty Lee's did when she saved Azula from the sinking ship. Azula watches as they spiral upwards, and Ty Lee is clearly not herself as she clings to the statue blindly.

The light that shoots up from above excites Azula. It will act as a beacon... but it will also let everyone know that the Avatar has been found. Azula takes Ty Lee in her arms when she crumbles, now assuredly and adamantly refusing to lose the Avatar she righteously gained as a gambit in her game.

Zuko and Toph stand breathless.

And, finally, Zuko says, "She's the Avatar. You didn't tell us that she was the Avatar!"

* * *

Somehow, the distrust in their camp is even more prominent than before. They avoid each other at the fire, and they are sleeping on the steps of the temple. The beacon of light is still pounding into the sky, and Azula doubts it will be very easy to sleep.

Ty Lee cannot sleep either, knowing that she is in danger. She keeps willing the light to stop, to _please, please _stop, but it will not.

And the light is bad news, because at daybreak, the group is surrounded by Fire Nation soldiers. Azula grabs Ty Lee and prevents her from fighting as Zuko and Toph start a conflict with the soldiers. Toph's earthbending tears apart the temple steps to shreds, and she knocks two soldiers unconscious, and one dead.

Azula turns herself in, allowing she and Ty Lee to be bound by the soldiers. And at last, with a burst of firebending from a familiar man and several other elite firebenders, Toph is taken down, and Zuko with her.

"None of you move!" shouts Zhao and Azula and Zuko are both floored. Toph struggles against the bonds she has been put in, lamenting that they are made of metal.

Ty Lee is so weakened. She does not know what to do or say. Azula slowly raises her bound hands in surrender, as do Ty Lee and Zuko. Zhao has at least thirty strong of men, and Azula is assuming the giant glowing light probably had something to do with it.

"The Avatar is with them," Zhao barks and Azula grits her teeth. She has to think quickly.

"Zuko has captured the Avatar," Azula says quickly and her brother looks completely confused. Azula glares at him, giving him a silencing look. But he is panicked the minute she says it. "The blind girl is an earthbender; she is the Avatar, and I discovered it when my brother and I became lost in the woods."

Zhao points his aflame fingers at Ty Lee. "Who's she?"

"My prisoner. She owes me a life debt and I intend to bring her home to Caldera to serve me," Azula says swiftly, in a tone so honest that Ty Lee wonders if she can ever trust Azula again.

Zhao breathes, letting the princess's words sink in. _Yes_, she must be right. The earthbending girl was extremely talented.

"Men, take the Avatar. You, liberate the princess. I will decide what to do with the traitor and the prisoner," Zhao says.

The moment Azula is unleashed from her bonds her expression sours. "I outrank you in this situation, Commander Zhao."

"_Admiral _Zhao, now, princess," he corrects viciously.

"I don't care. I still outrank you no matter what fancy word they put before your name. My brother was given a task by my father; he was intended to capture the Avatar, and under those conditions, he could come home," Azula says and Zuko is confused. _So confused_. He has no idea why she is doing this, but he doubts it is for compassionate reasons. "And my prisoner will remain with me at all times, or I will have your heads on stakes."

Zhao rubs his face, knowing that Azula has a good deal of power. But also knowing that this is a ludicrous idea.

"Zuko has still committed treason with his actions for the rebels," Zhao says and Azula nods.

"I know. But I was tasked to bring him home, and he has brought the Avatar with him as well. It was a wonderful catch. Let's return to my father promptly, if you would please. And get us clothes and food; it took you _long enough _to save us from our death in this forest."

Ty Lee is grabbed by the wrist, her lips ajar.

She does not know what Azula is thinking, but she doubts that it is good.


	11. Two Life Debts

The steel ship at last leaves the river and moves past the trees. They are on open sea, heading directly for the Fire Nation in the dark, star-studded night. On the cold bow, Princess Azula is the only free person in her recovered group. She stands, a red blanket gently draped around her as she gazes out at the horizon, looking towards home.

She finds that, while she wants a multitude of things, she most wants to go home right now. And to _never _see a forest again.

Admiral Zhao's heavy footsteps clang loudly against the deck as he walks to stand beside the princess. She fell right into his hands, as well as the Avatar and Prince Zuko. Her little prisoner pet, he does not ask about. For now, his mind is fixated on the glory when he returns home.

So long as she cooperates. So long as Azula will not do something wildly unpredictable.

Mai did not seem very comforting about the matter, when he inquired.

The princess looks up the admiral and they exchange a brief glance before, "Does us nearly dying of exposure make you look good, Admiral?" Azula says sweetly, batting her eyelashes.

The mixed messages in that statement are pathetically confusing to the man.

He has no doubts that she will be an excellent Fire Lord one day, but right now she is an adolescent girl, and there are few things old men fear than adolescent girls. And _this _teenager with the tempting posture and thoughts beyond comprehension, is able to have him killed.

"Me rescuing you from dying of exposure makes me look good," Zhao replies curtly, confidence raging in him like a poorly controlled flame. Unfortunately, Azula must admit that he has a point.

But she runs her fingernail along her lower lip as gears turn in her brilliant mind. And they land on the most perfect of possible conclusions to her journey. Oh, Zhao is not the inconvenience she thought him to be. She now realizes that he is the opposite of a burden; he is useful.

"Then we have a mutual interest, don't we?" Azula purrs with a small, charming smile and Zhao studies her uncomfortably for a moment.

"I don't see what at all is mutual about me valiantly saving your life," he growls, not even bothering to be cautious at this point. She probably is playing worse games than her sullen little friend, and that perturbs him.

"Well, _no_, you see, because it was that prisoner who truly saved my life. I would have drowned if she had not fished me out, and I never would have made it through the forest without her knowledge."

"That knowledge does not help me in any way."

"She had an unpaid debt. A life debt, towards me. It is repaid, however, if this story were to... _twist_ ─ because whatever I say is the truth, even if I claim that airbending purple men came down from the heavens to rescue me ─ in order to give _you _that unpaid debt..." Azula looks at him, a glint in her golden eyes. But he does not seem to catch on.

"I misunderstand. Enlighten me." His heart pounds, awaiting an answer that he doubts he will enjoy hearing.

"That prisoner is appealing to me. But she is only of worth in my father's eyes if I am keeping her around because she owes me her life. Yet, if _you _were to be the one who did it, and she would seem crazy if she tried to protest..." Azula cocks an eyebrow and he at last understands.

"You're telling me that you'll give me credit, and therefore, she will still owe you legally in the eyes of the Fire Nation," Zhao says slowly and the only explanation he has for her behavior is hormonal infatuation. But, being legally owed a favor from the crown princess, and rewarded in the Fire Lord's eyes is enough to keep his mouth shut and let her play with her toy as long as she pleases.

"Yes, Admiral Zhao. Magnificent work repeating what I said back to me." She claps sarcastically before walking into the innards of the ship.

He gazes out at the sea and can only hope that the princess is telling the truth.

Her owing him a legal debt would be a very magnificent shift in events, and that is most certainly worth the high risk of listening to her.

* * *

Azula finds Ty Lee shackled in the warm and stifling hot captain's cabin; the room given to Azula immediately. It still smells like tobacco smoke and metal, from the man who had it before, but they are on a fast track to the Fire Nation, and Azula does not think she will sleep in the first place.

"What's happening?" Ty Lee asks softly as Azula sits beside her. "Are we going to tell them our little secret? What if they find out it's not Toph?"

Princess Azula gently touches her forefinger to Ty Lee's lips, and then kisses her passionately.

"I have it all worked out. Don't be afraid." Azula moves, running her fingers along the metal handcuffs and enjoying the deep, hot throbbing that comes with this situation. With Ty Lee belonging to her.

She has to admit, the time in the woods made her fall for this girl.

"I'm freed. Right? I saved your life," Ty Lee whispers and Azula's eyes flash wide with unwarranted rage. Ty Lee does not know what at all to make of it, and so she just stares at Azula with glittering eyes and a slack jaw.

"Do you want to be free? You want to _leave me _after all I have done for you!" screeches Azula and Ty Lee cannot begin to find the words to explain how much of that is far from true.

Maybe Azula was predicting Ty Lee to want to betray her, but after all they went through in the woods, Ty Lee is uncertain of Azula's paranoia.

"We never finished our firebending lessons," Ty Lee offers honestly and Azula glares at her as if that is an even worse offense.

"So, you just want to use me to learn how to firebend?" Azula spits and Ty Lee suddenly can see something deep beneath the surface. Something is hurting, throbbing in her, unable to be ignored and forgotten. And Ty Lee has no idea what it is or how to help with it.

"No, I've started to... _Azula_ ─"

"_Princess_. You will address me by my proper title." Her golden eyes flash as they do when she has decided to assume control of everything around her. Ty Lee just inhales deeply and gazes intently at her feet.

"Princess, everything that happened in the forest was real. I like you ─ I think I might _love _you! I don't want to leave you just because I wind up free," Ty Lee says feebly, but honestly. Thoroughly truthful.

"You won't be able to leave me, and my father will not be able to take you from me. You are my prisoner, and that will not change."

Azula dives out the room, fighting her strong desire to look back.

Ty Lee fights her strong desire to run after her. But the chains on her make that nearly impossible to execute.

Now they both are hurting. Ty Lee fights the tears in her eyes as she weakly tugs at her chains for a moment. She thinks about how Azula saved her from certain death, and then when Ty Lee first went into the Avatar State, it was because Princess Azula was in danger.

Why can Azula not see how their spirits are somehow bound? _Something _stronger than sex is holding them together, but Ty Lee does not think she can get Azula to see it.

* * *

Zuko looks at Toph beside him, glancing again.

She refuses to say anything, and she wears an expression that could kill a platypus bear.

He at last decides to speak to her. "I'm sorry. I'm sorry for taking you away from your life and getting you _here_."

Toph pouts her lips out for a moment but she shakes her head. "I don't regret leaving that place. It was horrible there, and I don't even think that the Fire Nation could be worse."

Zuko stares at her, and thinks about every moment in the forest. He was lost, but he felt much less lost than when he was with the rebels. Yes, he misses his uncle, and he knows that returning to his father cannot end well. He knows that, while when he was relying on Azula in the forest, she now is free to do whatever torment she can think of.

"I don't regret finding you," Zuko says softly and Toph grins mockingly.

"Awww," she says, punching his shoulder. "I'm totally flattered, Twitchy. Of course you needed me to save your butt like a million times."

Zuko rubs his temples and groans. Toph works as hard as she can to fight the flush she feels in her cheeks.

* * *

Azula returns to Ty Lee eventually, while the prisoner is trying weakly to entertain herself while in captivity. She _knows _that she will not escape, but she also, for some reason, doesn't _want _to escape. It is so confusing and complicated, and Ty Lee does not how to make sense of any of it.

"Is Mai here?" Ty Lee asks softly as Azula closes the door.

"Yes. She's occupied, however," Azula says smoothly, even though Mai is not occupied. Azula just does not want to talk to _anyone _save for her prisoner and the man she is about to use until she is safely with her father.

Being cast into the forest, lost, dying of exposure and starving, made her realize how much she _needs _to be in control of a situation. It also made her realize that she _needs _to have control of Ty Lee so that she does not lose her. They _needed _each other in the forest, and Azula knows that, being a prisoner and the Avatar, Ty Lee will run at the first chance.

All Azula wants is to kneel before her father and tell him what must be said.

Then she can retire into a life that she has power over.

"Your father would have to let me be with you if you tell him how I saved you," Ty Lee says excitedly and Azula just silently gets undressed and lies down beside her.

"I don't know," Azula lies, and she wants to feel the warm body of her secret Avatar as she falls asleep.

This is certainly a complicated situation.


	12. Azula Always Lies

Ty Lee tosses and turns in the dead of the night. The ship is still four days away from the Fire Nation, without any storms, fog or tumultuous waves. And right now they are nearing arctic waters, and Ty Lee is _freezing_.

Azula sleeps beside her. The princess never sleeps very peacefully; Ty Lee thinks it is because she constantly has so much on her mind. Being a genius must be an odd and alien way for a person to live, particularly a person with as much ambition and intellect as Princess Azula.

"Azula," whispers Ty Lee as she presses their bodies together. _She _is warm. A thousand times warmer than the rough blankets draped over them. Ty Lee closes her eyes briefly as she basks in the sensation, until Azula stirs awake and turns to her.

"What do you need?" Azula demands coldly, closely studying her prisoner.

"I... I'm cold," Ty Lee says softly, her cheeks flushing. _This _is why she needs to learn how to be a firebender. To be able to regulate her body temperature would be miraculous; it almost sounds more appealing than learning all four elements as the Avatar.

Azula pauses and nods. "I can send for more blankets."

"You're warm," Ty Lee blurts out, feeling like an idiot.

Now, Azula is not much more adept at flirting than Ty Lee. In fact, she is far worse at it. But in their situation, Azula does manage to remain more detached and composed at all times, even if it makes her very far from sexy or romantic.

Azula touches her hands to Ty Lee, silently offering to both heat her and perhaps involve into something much more fiery.

But Ty Lee just moves closer. "I want... I want to _share _your heat."

Azula's eyes flash at that, as if Ty Lee has just said something shocking.

Ty Lee asks, "What is it? What's wrong?" She feels panic surging through her body. There is no way that the owner Ty Lee has fallen so madly in love with could be this _angry _or _panicked_.

"That's," Azula says slowly, "that's something that means a lot in the Fire Nation."

Ty Lee is unsure what to say. "I don't understand," can't hurt.

"To share someone's heat is a very serious desire in a relationship. That action means much, much more than sex," Azula explains softly, her cold, laissez-faire tone disappearing. Now, her voice is choppy and concerned.

It makes Ty Lee wonder just how much Azula might be interested in her. Perhaps the lies about being girlfriends had more than a kernel of truth. Maybe Azula is just as sick as Ty Lee feels, and that concept is so thrilling that Ty Lee can barely contain herself.

On the other hand, maybe Azula is disgusted by Ty Lee's misstep. There is always the chance that Azula is repulsed by her prisoner wanting to share her heat, to do something with such romantic significance in her homeland.

In _their _homeland.

"I didn't mean to offend you," Ty Lee whispers, gently shifting away from Azula's body. She does it as subtly as she can, but of course Azula notices. Nothing slips past the Fire Nation Princess. "I really don't know too much about my own culture."

"You really don't know too much about anything," Azula says mockingly, regaining her smooth confidence. It seems the further apart the Avatar is from Azula, the more like herself she feels. Perhaps it is some kind of odd Spirit World meddling or curse. Or so Azula hopes. "You're lucky that you're pretty enough to be stupid."

Ty Lee does not take too much offense at Azula's words. She does not think that the princess means them, even if it is just wishful thinking from a girl in love.

"If you want, you could send for more blankets, like you said," Ty Lee says gently, offering a friendly smile.

_Yes_. It does seem that Azula is evading any romance, which perhaps means that Ty Lee's feelings are entirely unrequited.

Azula sends for the blankets, as Ty Lee wonders just how screwed up a person must be to love their captor so passionately.

* * *

The next day, Azula sits with Mai, toying with one of the many maps strewn on the tables and plastering the steel walls. Mai is sharpening a blade, although she does not seem incredibly interested in it at all.

Mai says, "So, you have any plans about that prisoner of yours. I have to admit I don't follow just why you handed over the _Avatar _along with your brother."

Of course. Of course the only time Mai uses any inflection is to degrade Princess Azula and her tactical decisions.

"I will of course reveal the truth to my father alone. You've seen Zhao. If he knew who the _real _one was, he would steal her right from under me. I know what I am doing and it is all in the best interest of my future throne." Azula releases the map and clasps her hands.

Mai is beyond skeptical. "You're into her. You're really into her."

"That is ridiculous," Azula asserts, her eyes flashing and glowing molten gold.

But Mai is not deterred. "Right. I believe you."

"No. You don't. You absolutely don't and I can see right through you," Azula snaps, unable to control her rage at the suggestion that she could have _romantic _feelings for Ty Lee.

"No, I really do." Mai fights the urge to roll her eyes.

"Am I attracted to her? Yes. But that is _fine_. I am a teenager with desires. Do I like her company and conversation? Surprisingly, yes, but it isn't as if that matters. Does she make me feel those butterflies? Again. Hormones. Those butterflies have nothing to do with love and are just trying to prod you to mate."

"Prod you to mate?" Mai asks dryly in disbelief.

"Have I had sex with her?" Azula continues, undeterred. "Yes. But only because I was horny and she was the only option. Do I fantasize about her? Yes. But only in that whole captive kinky thing, and only in _two positions _for Agni's sake. Am I willing to sacrifice my integrity or take the risk of lying to my father and Zhao just in order to get with a petty thief? Of course not. I have _no _romantic feelings for her and you are sadly misguided."

Mai stares expressionlessly. Azula is so deep into denial that Mai does not think there is any chance of her managing to claw her way to the surface.

So Mai shrugs. "I guess you're right."

Princess Azula is well aware that Mai still does not believe her, but Azula does _not _need to justify herself.

* * *

They are at last in the Fire Nation, and Azula is pacing outside of the throne room.

She is eager, of course, to return in glory. But she is also riddled with confusion, particularly about why she keeps getting a sick feeling in her stomach when she thinks about revealing her Avatar to her father.

Azula just swallows and walks inside as a guard opens the door for her.

She can see Zhao inside, bowed nearly to groveling despite his usual straight shoulders and over the top power positions. _Of course _father allowed Admiral Zhao to speak first. Azula did not find that very surprising.

The princess kneels in the orange glow of the flames as Zhao is dismissed. He gives her a brief glance, acknowledging that he is playing along with her plans.

"A life debt?" Ozai inquires, not offering more words than that.

"Yes. A life debt," Azula says cleanly. "I owe Zhao one, and as an honorable royal, I intend to be faithful to it. _But_, he may have told you the reason I insisted on keeping my prisoner."

"Yes," Ozai replies and Azula can see the look on his face. He allowed Zhao to be examined first because he trusts Azula more, and Zhao is more likely to lie if he goes before her.

Not that Azula does not know that, and not that she isn't unafraid to use it to her advantage.

But of course daddy's perfect little girl could not be a compulsive liar.

"Well... I lied to Zhao. I couldn't have him screwing up because of his pride. My prisoner is the Avatar, father. Not the earthbending girl," Azula purrs and Ozai's eyes flash. "Please hear me out. I have been thinking about the potential that I personally, with all due respect to grandfather, think was wasted with Hama."

Ozai does not hesitate to ask, "Yes?"

"My Avatar, Ty Lee, is of Fire Nation descent. She is loyal to the Fire Nation despite being raised by an Earth Kingdom family. I believe that she could be our weapon." Azula silently awaits his approval or disapproval, but he seems to be waiting for more. "Her life debt will allow me utter control over her. She also is very attached to me, and trusts me deeply. I could mold her into a weapon that could destroy the rebels and assure that the Fire Nation will never fall."

Fire Lord Ozai likes that idea. How could he not like that idea?

But, "Of course the public and advisors would object to training an Avatar. They expect us to buy time by letting the Avatar die in captivity."

Azula faintly smiles. "Yes... _but_ we have people already under the impression that the Avatar is ZuZ─_Zuko's _new girlfriend. We chain her up and I train Ty Lee. No one would be the wiser until we have an Avatar loyal to the Fire Nation."

Ozai is impressed, he must admit. Azula is clever, yes, but he could not imagine an idea that is more appealing.

"I like your idea. I will allow it." He leaves it at that, although there is clearly much more to discuss.

Azula smirks.

* * *

Toph gnashes, shouts, curses and rages at the guards who have her locked in metal. _Metal_, inescapable. She does not think she could _ever _hate the Fire Nation more in her life. And _that _is a pretty huge statement.

She is not the Avatar, but she also isn't dumb enough to say that she isn't. The only reason they're keeping her alive is because of that, and Toph needs to be alive if she is going to escape.

Right now, she is in a prison with Zuko, and she can feel his heart pounding with either panic or rage.

The guards leave, and Toph is left alone with him for a moment.

Zuko just says, "I know you're not the Avatar."

"Well, _duh_. Thanks for stating the obvious!" Toph snaps, enraged. She thrashes against the metal again, and suddenly a hand is on her.

"Please don't do that," Zuko says and Toph makes a growling sound like an angry animal.

"Stop trying to protect me! I know that I'm _blind _and a _kid _but I'm also capable of taking care of myself! I'm going to get out of this!" Toph screams but Zuko does not lift his hand.

"I'm not trying to help you because you're blind. That obviously doesn't matter, because you're pretty much the most badass person I've ever met," the prince says awkwardly, immensely glad that Toph cannot see his blush. "I'm making sure you don't hurt yourself because you're... my friend. My friend, okay?"

Toph has no words.

None at all.

Toph wants to punch him, or cuss him out for being such a weakling. But, on the other hand, that forest changed things forever in Toph's life, and she kind of might like Twitchy a little bit.

And so she says, "When I break out, we're breaking out together."

That is the end of the story.

* * *

Azula walks to Ty Lee's prison and allows herself in.

"I'm not supposed to be here," the princess whispers and Ty Lee looks up at her, confused and shivering. "I'm sorry about what happened with you being imprisoned. I wanted you to be free and you know it. But I can't control my father's decisions."

Ty Lee peels more skin off of her lower lip with her nails. She knows that. She knows that it could only be Fire Lord Ozai who did this to her, and not Azula.

"Do you need something?" Ty Lee asks quietly as Azula walks closer to the cot on the edge of the cell.

"You're shivering," Azula remarks, looking at Ty Lee. Her skin is damp with sweat and the frigid chill of the prison is making her shiver and shake out of control. Even her teeth are chattering. Azula licks her lips and reminds herself over and over again that this is just to use her Avatar. "I want to share my warmth with you."

Ty Lee's eyes light up as Azula is on the cot before another word can be said.

Azula feels a satisfied growling of some beast within her that she refuses to acknowledge.

* * *

_**AN: **Not much Toko in this chapter; I'm sorry. It just didn't fit in while they both are prisoners I'll make up for it next chapter. Also - the headcanon about sharing warmth being a romantically significant thing in the Fire Nation isn't mine, but for the life of me I couldn't remember in what Tyzula fic I read it. If you know or its yours and you want credit, please tell me. Thanks much for reading!_


	13. You're Very Wet

Ty Lee wakes in prison, and can feel Azula on her, before realizing it is just a ghostly memory of the girl who was with her last night. The princess has already gotten up and Ty Lee thinks that Azula must regret what they have done, what they have done again and again. But the princess is still in the holding cell, pacing back and forth.

"You're making me dizzy," Ty Lee chimes and Azula jumps, a small flare of blue lighting the cold, dank room. Ty Lee smiles faintly and Azula looks at her, weighing whether or not it is worth it to chastise her.

Azula decides against it. "I shouldn't have stayed here."

"You're still here," Ty Lee replies, and if she were not batting her eyelashes so innocently, Azula would have done more than just shoot her a look that reminds her where they stand. "I'm sorry. It's good to see you, while I'm, uh, a prisoner and stuff."

"Of course. I didn't dislike last night, and I meant what I said," Azula lies sweetly as she walks to her Avatar again. _Her _Avatar, emphasis on _her_ because Azula wants this girl to belong to _her_. "I want to be with you as much more than this, but of course you will have to prove your worth to my father."

Azula is close to Ty Lee now, sliding onto her lap, where she fits just perfectly, and where Azula feels a strong warmth that has nothing to do with relationship commitment or manipulation of the most powerful weapon in this war.

Their lips touch very hesitantly and Azula backs out of it as soon as she realizes. She is being stupid, and she is well aware of how ridiculous it is to be doing this. It is just because she is a teenager, and teenagers have the desire to indulge themselves. But Azula is also the most important person in the world and has no feelings for the pickpocket she spared weeks ago.

What feels like a thousand years ago, in all honesty.

Ty Lee averts her wide, sparkly eyes when Azula pulls back but does not stand up. "Azula, what even are we? Who even are we and what is this and...?"

"You will address me as Princess Azula, or your highness," snaps Azula and she feels oddly, needlessly proud of herself for the harsh words she would give any person alive.

"_Princess_, I'm sorry. What are we, princess?" Ty Lee stammers, her mouth sticky and her tongue tied. Her skin is sweaty and chafed from this pestilent prison.

Azula spends a few moments in thought before she is able to answer.

"We're the heir to the Fire Nation and the Avatar," Azula says before brief hesitation. "And perhaps our relationship is more than that, what with the physical aspects."

"Take me on a date," Ty Lee says quickly. "Take me on a date, _princess_."

"Do not give me orders." Azula stands up and claws at the inside of her wrist as punishment for her body attempting to turn back and return to the position.

"Permission to ask you to take me on a date?" Ty Lee asks, her voice an aria of sweet temptation calling for the princess.

But Azula does not have to respond, since the opening of the door interrupts them. Boots clatter in and Azula looks up to see her _father_. Her _father _in a grungy prison, which is not befitting of him in the slightest. He has soldiers near him, and they seem to feel as oddly about it as she does.

"You look awful," he says to his daughter and she feels the urge to throw up. She can feel last night on her, and she feels like he can see it. "Bring your girl with me; I've ordered the presence of the Fire Sages and reserved a private courtyard for you to begin your training of our... guest. It is on your shoulders of course. I am certain you will prove competent in taking care of this military venture on your own."

"Of course, father," Azula says because nothing more intelligent comes to mind.

She has her arms wrapped tightly around herself as she and Ty Lee are led from the holding cell. Azula wishes she could better disguise last night, wishes she was not so close to her father right now, and mostly wishes that Ty Lee would just _stop looking at her like that_.

Azula will have to beat sense into her, of course. The princess absolutely can do that and her father is not mistaken to put his trust in her.

* * *

Ty Lee feels nervous as she walks into the secluded, eerie room and sees the Fire Sages waiting for her. They all look patient and calm, and their robes and beards are so impeccable that Ty Lee feels pathetic in her rags she is calling clothes.

Azula walks and stands beside Ty Lee as the guards are dismissed and Fire Lord Ozai walks to watch from a seat on the other side of the room. Ty Lee sees a chalice with fire burning in it, but the smoke smells sickly sweet and nothing like the damp, crackling wood she was used to when she lived in the Earth Kingdom.

The Fire Sages say some things that Ty Lee really doesn't understand. But she understands the next part.

"We are to test if you are truly the Avatar or not," one of them says and Ty Lee watches the ritualistic artifacts in his hands.

She steps back and Azula pushes Ty Lee gently forward with three of her fingers.

Ty Lee tries not to blush at the sharp touch, and she walks to allow the strange bearded people to examine her.

* * *

Ty Lee doesn't learn anything about her results, but she is given weird tests and asked strange questions as the Fire Sages nod and jot things down on parchment.

Now, she stands with Azula out in the private courtyard Ozai gave them.

Ty Lee is eager to learn, but Azula looks as cold and placid as ever. Ty Lee wants to break those walls or melt her with a kiss, but she bows and keeps from looking overconfident.

"Are you ready to begin your training?" Azula purrs as she looks at her Avatar.

"Yeah," Ty Lee says eagerly with that bright smile that Azula does not understand.

"We're beginning with firebending, I presume?" Azula asks glossily and Ty Lee nods, despite the tension inside of her. "Or perhaps we could begin with you showing me what combat you're already comfortable with? It would probably improve my teaching skills."

"I'm sure you're a _great _teacher," Ty Lee says and she is so _earnest _that Azula is disturbed by it. "Okay, I'll show you!"

Ty Lee's next act after saying that is to do a backwards handspring.

Once Azula erases her shock, she thinks that perhaps her Avatar has much more potential than she had previously thought.

She smirks.

As Ty Lee trains with her, Azula is captivated by just one thing; Ty Lee has a fire and life inside of her that Azula is captivated by. It's a strange thing to see in this world, and Azula loves to watch it.

Ty Lee doesn't learn a lick of firebending, but they do spar in the sunlight and share hot, heavy breaths.

* * *

The heat and exhaustion are overcoming Ty Lee when her training ends. Azula was super tough on her but they both were so able to focus on things other than each other and how much they want their lips to link together. Now it is raining, and so Azula cuts the training short.

"You don't like the rain?" Ty Lee asks and Azula shakes her head.

"Of course I dislike the rain. I'm the most powerful firebender in all of history," Azula says as they stand beneath the roof of the main wing of the palace.

"You really are," Ty Lee says and she smiles. "And the most powerful person probably too! When you saved me..."

Ty Lee smiles to herself and Azula turns, awaiting a continuation. She gets nothing.

"Yes?" Azula asks and Ty Lee scratches her neck.

"I saw you and I thought you were really amazing already. You were beautiful and scary in a good way, and then you saved my life and I got to come with you. Thank you," Ty Lee says and Azula shrugs.

"I did as I pleased, and I'm glad you enjoyed it," Azula says coldly, but Ty Lee can see the fire reddening Azula's cheeks.

Ty Lee reaches forward gently to touch her face. "You have the best cheekbones _ever_..."

Azula lets her Avatar touch said cheekbones for a flicker of a chance before she steps backwards.

"I would prefer you not doing that without asking."

_It's not very romantic if I ask_, Ty Lee thinks to herself, but she continues smiling at Azula.

Ty Lee watches the rain become torrential and more thunderous and she takes her training coat off. She walks away from Azula as the princess remains still and proud as a statue of a leader and not a fluid, warm human being.

And Ty Lee just stands in the rain, the water dripping from her bare arms and weighing her hair down, as Azula watches and wonders why she does instead of wringing Ty Lee in by handcuffs.

* * *

"You're very wet," Azula says as Ty Lee begins to take off her soaking clothes in front of her trainer. They are in Ty Lee's new bedroom, and the Avatar is very uncomfortable about that fact.

They have moved her to a lovely new place to live, but Ty Lee thinks that the cell was way more comforting. The Fire Lord isn't supposed to make kind gestures like this, and so Ty Lee assumes it isn't a kind gesture.

Azula sits on the dresser casually, kicking one foot back and forth as she does not stop herself from staring. And Ty Lee does not want her to stop staring.

"I'm soaked," Ty Lee says and then she wiggles her eyebrows. Azula realizes what she has said and tries her best to not cringe. "I was thinking about today, and..." Ty Lee wrings out her hair and eyes Azula nervously for a moment. "Will you go on that date with me?"

The princess is taken aback as Ty Lee waits hopefully for her response.

Azula thinks of a thousand answers, but she gives the one that she is supposed to give. "No."

Ty Lee looks away with a dejected frown, but she quickly covers it up with another smile.

* * *

Azula needs to rid herself of the sensations she is experiencing after Ty Lee asked her on a _date_. She walks through the palace halls as soon as the Avatar is locked away in her room again. The princess is searching for Mai, searching for a _real _romantic interest.

But she is blockaded before she reaches the door by Admiral Zhao. Of course he would pick the most inconvenient time to interrupt her with his delusions of his own power.

"Let's talk about your promise," Zhao states as he blocks the only exit.

Azula takes a slow breath. She does not need him anymore now that her father is helping her with training the Avatar, but she also knows that burning this bridge would be most unwise. Azula handed this man glory and convinced him that she is indebted to him.

Azula was indebted to Ty Lee too, and look how that turned out.

"Admiral Zhao, with all due respect, I do not have nearly enough time for this discussion," Azula says quietly, attempting to remain calm and not strike him with lightning.

He just has a punchable face, Azula decides. Some people just have faces you just want to _punch_. Zhao is one of them.

"You have given me an offer that we haven't spoken nearly enough about. I helped you, and now you help me. It's very basic reciprocity," he says in a tone that makes him attempt to sound bigger than he is.

Azula licks her lower lip and steels her expression. "Do you have any suggestions or an idea of your demand? I would be most willing to contemplate whatever you offer."

Ozai knows about the lie, but he has not told Zhao, apparently. Azula makes mental note to inquire about it as soon as she can.

"You need a list?" he growls.

"Yes. Magnificent job repeating what I said back to me. It's a gift of yours." She crosses her arms and watches his expression.

It then fades into one that makes Azula _uncomfortable_. He doesn't look like a military man with too much bravado, but like a person who has just had a genuine idea.

"I will get back to you on it, then, if you would like to do this so officially."

He lets her pass him but she hesitates slightly before walking away from his overly strong cologne. Azula goes down the hallway with swift steps after that... it was unpleasant and she does not want to think about it.

Azula does find Mai, and she focuses entirely on her. They have a perfect friends with benefits relationship, and a psuedo-romance that Azula has always enjoyed. One that is worth more in Azula's eyes than any she could have with a vagrant...

No matter how sexy that vagrant is. Or how lively that vagrant is when she bends and dances with the sunlight making her hair shine instead of looking like tarnished brass as usual.

"When you're done gawking, I'd like to talk to you," Mai says and she snaps Azula out of her trance.

Azula blinks away the images and says, "You're going on a date with me. Tonight."

Mai shrugs.

* * *

That night, Ty Lee stares at the dark ceiling as she tosses and turns. Sleep won't come easily.

But sleep comes, sleep comes and Ty Lee wakes up on the mossy ground of a forest floor.

Ty Lee bares her teeth as she clings to the ground, tearing at the roots beneath her. Roots? She does not remember trees. Not at all; she was just in bed in the Fire Nation royal palace, locked up and indebted to the royal family.

She looks up and sees an elderly woman with a strange glint in her eyes. Ty Lee's breath escalates as she realizes that this must be the former Avatar. It must be. But Ty Lee assumed that there must be an earthbender before her, because all she can do is firebend.

"Hello, my dear," says the crone and Ty Lee sits back on her knees.

Her eyes are hooked to the scene in front of her and her lips are sealed tightly. She looks like a ghost before Ty Lee and she feels scared.

It reminds her of her nightmares when she was a little girl.

"You're..." Ty Lee remains silent after realizing she has nothing to say in response. It would be impossible to articulately express the overpowering feeling surging through her.

"You're here helping the Fire Nation, are you?" Hama asks and the derision in her tone makes Ty Lee feel like a scolded toddler. "It must be nice to live in such peace. I hear that ignorance is bliss these days."

Ty Lee frowns weakly and looks at the strange hue of the ground beneath her.

"I thought I was Fire Nation. I'm half Fire Nation and I only know firebending, well, barely know firebending..."

"It's a word problem. Work it out nice and slow at your own pace while the world burns around you," Hama remarks and Ty Lee feels even worse.

"I'm half Earth Kingdom, I know," Ty Lee says, solving the impossibly simple dilemma.

The former Avatar wishes she were more relieved by that, but she absolutely is not.

"You are in a position that no Avatar has been in before. That no one in the past hundred years has been in. And you're squandering it making eyes at that princess."

"I'm..." Ty Lee again silences herself.

"She's using you, why not use her? Do you have allegiance to the Fire Nation, or do you see the opportunity those fools are handing you. You could save everyone, or save your own skin, whatever feels right to you." Mockery. The worst kind of mockery is in her tone.

"I'm... You're right," Ty Lee admits and Hama does not look any happier about the situation.

"Make your way to Crescent Island on the day of the Solstice. It is the best chance you will have to converse and to attempt to master the Avatar State."

"The what?" Ty Lee asks, even though she knows.

And Hama knows she knows, and her spectral form is gone, leaving Ty Lee with the complicated thoughts about her stay in the Fire Nation.

Ty Lee glares up at the ceiling.

Azula isn't _really _using her. Ty Lee doesn't believe that.

* * *

Azula can only think about how Ty Lee had asked her for a _date _as she readies herself to go out with Mai. As Azula compares necklaces against her pallid skin, she has that electric tingling in her as she again allows herself to slip into the memories of last night, and of the forest, and of the strings of stars in the sky as she lay back and drifted away with the Avatar.

Which is inappropriate, of course. Now, Azula does believe in what she said to her father; she knows that the Avatar would be far best used as an advantage for the Fire Nation instead of an enemy. Going on Sozin's words makes no sense these days, and Azula must be progressive for her people.

Perhaps, once Azula conquers the entire world, she will have her Avatar as a mistress, or consort or... other enjoyable things that would be appropriate for the Fire Lord...

No, the _Queen_. No, not that either. The _Commander_. Too dull and pedestrian.

_Empress_. "Empress Azula, yes..."

"Empress Azula, you've been getting ready for two hours," says a voice and both necklaces fall to the floor. "Do you need any extra time, Empress Azula?"

Mai leans in the doorway, seeming quite amused by herself. Azula rolls her eyes and turns around.

"Don't call me that."

"I think it sounds perfect, Empress Azula," Mai says before dodging a solid gold bracelet that crashes into the wall.

"I'm ready," Azula says, but Mai watches her fingertips linger on the dresser.

She is so clearly hung up on her Avatar, but Mai does not know if Azula will ever admit it.


	14. Destiny

The only words of mother's that Ty Lee remembers are, _"The world is going to break you, Ty."_

She thinks her mother might have been right about that, even if she was wrong about most everything else. Ty Lee sits in her pretty prison cell, knowing that Azula is out with _Mai_. Of course, Ty Lee knows she shouldn't be jealous, but Azula's aura is so vibrant and constantly shifts between shades of blue that Ty Lee has never even seen before, and Mai is… grey. Monochrome and stagnant.

Azula deserves someone who burns as brightly as she does.

Ty Lee cannot stop thinking about that date, when she just woke from an intense experience speaking to the previous Avatar. It is the first time any of them have bothered trying to contact her, and Hama wanted Ty Lee to _use _Azula.

But Azula has not been _using _Ty Lee any more than their relationship and Azula's work warrants. Why is it so troubling for Ty Lee to choose love and safety over balance that she doubts exists? Wouldn't it be so much easier to be loyal to the Fire Nation than to risk herself for people who she doesn't care about? Nobody ever bothered to help the young thief except for the _Fire Nation Princess_ and maybe Ty Lee does not _want _to help anybody but her.

Someone knocks on the door and Ty Lee jumps before gathering her thoughts and calling, "Come in," even though she knows if they have clearance, they will be able to walk right inside.

It is… Fire Lord Ozai. Ty Lee could not have predicted that in a million years.

"You look well. Much better than you and my daughter were when you turned up from the wilderness," Ozai remarks as if commenting on the weather. Ty Lee just nods feverishly. "She has been training you, I presume?"

"Yes. Very well. She's good at it," Ty Lee stammers too quickly. She does _not _want to confide in Fire Lord Ozai that she and Azula spent their training time trying to do backflips and laughing instead of what they were supposed to be focusing on.

"She is the best firebender who ever lived. Azula will be a magnificent teacher to someone I am sure will be a magnificent Avatar." His words feel _off_. Too slippery sweet. Ty Lee thinks that there is no way he trusts her, and that this visit isn't as cordial as he is making it out to be.

"Yeah. She's great." Ty Lee beams at him and the tension in the room eases.

"You, of course, are in need of teachers from the other elements," Ozai says. "But that will come in due time. I wanted to offer you dinner and a tour of your new lodgings."

Ty Lee's eyes widen. She thought she would just be ushered between the training courtyard and her bedroom for the entirety of her stay, or at least until she became a fully realized Avatar.

"It sounds great," Ty Lee says and Fire Lord Ozai waits while she gets dressed.

Ty Lee really does wonder if they are as bad as everyone said behind closed doors.

* * *

Azula leaves her lackluster date and glares at the cold, pale moon.

"That was boring. You could do better," Mai remarks and it would be teasing if Azula were not so unnerved by the date she would rather have been on.

_"Permission to ask you on a date," _Ty Lee had asked.

"Perhaps you should have worked harder to entertain me."

Azula goes home.

Mai goes to bed with her.

That is how it works, and Azula does not like to fix things that are not broken.

* * *

Azula wakes the morning after her date with her naked body tangled with Mai's still. She rises without paying it any mind, goes to eat breakfast and is instantly confronted with a letter from none other than Admiral Zhao. Of course he tries to cash in his favor prematurely; the man lacks the patience to ever succeed beyond his dumb luck.

It informs her of some _project _he would like her to look at. She frowns at the parchment and then sighs; she was _hoping _to work with her Avatar, but she cannot afford to let him know that his Avatar is not the real one, and so she supposes he has stolen her morning with relative ease.

Azula forces Mai out of bed, for no reason other than to remind Zhao that Azula is otherwise involved. He _has _looked at her in a way that makes her feel uneasy, and as if he might not have the purest of intentions.

But, Mai seems to have been unnecessary, because Azula arrives at a military research center. It is where they built those huge crawling tank things that are enough to give Earth Kingdom newborns nightmares decades after. They were a bit like spider-snakes with combustion engines.

She finds a staff of men in important looking robes, and Zhao in dress crimsons ordering them around. Azula looks up at him, and he looks at her, and then she crosses her arms as she waits for him to walk across the room, bow his head respectfully and gesture at a…

"That's a rock. Is that rock what you have brought me to see?" Azula asks coolly. It is an unimpressive rock, save for having some barbaric runes on it.

"No," Zhao says and he gestures towards the balcony atop of which he is examining his workers. Azula is quite confused as to what is going on, even with her extensive education, and so she knows she must listen to him as Mai stands, bored, beside her.

"So…?" Azula inquires, leaning against the railing. Mai almost laughs at how pointedly sexual her posture is, and then _really _almost laughs at how Zhao doesn't seem to notice he's being played.

"I spent some time in a… library, of sorts, many years ago," Zhao says and Azula cocks an eyebrow. "Not an ordinary library. In it, I studied _spirits_."

"Spirits?" Azula asks, already deciding that this _project _is preposterous.

"Yes, spirits," Zhao says. "And their vast power. Of course, everyone said there was no way to harness that. Well, that was because no one had an easy time going into the Spirit World."

"Didn't my Uncle go in there looking for Lu Ten?" Azula asks chidingly.

"He is clearly indisposed and is an enemy of the state," Zhao replies. "No, there are places in which the Spirit World blends with ours, places in which just any person can enter. Of course, the Avatar felt necessary before, but I have come across the knowledge that people of certain… blood in relation to the Avatar could be helpful, the same with those touched by spirits in their lives."

"So, you need me to fund this project further?" Azula asks.

"No, your father has made it a military priority," Zhao deadpans and Azula realizes he is _being honest_. Her father must have lost his mind. "I need you to try to go into the portals we've been making. Artificial ones. We've made artificial openings but had less than admirable results."

"Mmm. I would suggest not risking my life for this," Azula purrs before leaving the railing and beginning to walk away.

"No one has died yet. I just want you to try. For your nation… for your glory," he says and Azula studies Mai closely.

Azula then sighs and turns around, cracking her knuckles. "I will make one attempt, solely because I owe you a debt."

Zhao smiles. "Just imagine what will happen when you rule not only this world, but the Spirit World as well. The Fire Nation conquers all. And the Spirit World is only fair."

He sounds absolutely flat fucking crazy and Azula wishes she had not gotten herself into this.

* * *

Azula stands in front of a wavy yellowy light and she does not like this at all. Mai is beside her, having somehow been roped into traveling alongside Azula herself. The princess reaches to touch the light and then changes her mind.

"Be grateful for your debt to me," Zhao says as he micromanages the last steps. "You would have never known about this if you didn't owe me a favor."

_A nearly deadly favor_, Azula wants to say, but she takes a deep breath and complies with this experiment.

* * *

The Spirit World. Entering the Spirit World hurts like she is being stabbed in the head and neck again and again. Azula hisses through her teeth as she feels her palms on a distinctly not metal surface. It feels like dry but fresh grass. When she opens her eyes, she sees that it is.

Azula sits up on her knees and looks around. This place is indescribable. It's eerie. It looks like something that even the best painter in history could not portray or fathom. It feels like sensations that simply should not exist. She is looking at colors without names.

"This place sucks," Mai remarks flatly as Azula is still absorbed in her surroundings.

"I can't believe that worked," Azula mutters before she begins to survey her surroundings.

Someone is walking towards them. She jumps to her feet and tries to summon a warning flame, but nothing happens. Azula barely suppresses her scream of horror.

"You can't bend here," says an old, amused woman. "It's the Spirit World. Different rules. You must be Princess Azula."

"I am. Who the fuck are you?" Azula demands hoarsely and Mai begins to stand and walk towards the princess. She just might need someone to hold her back from beating an old woman to the ground.

"I'm the Avatar before your beau," says the woman and as the bright light touches her skin her visage is apparent. Azula does not know how she knows save for maybe a few pictures in history books, but this is the Water Avatar that her father let die of old age. In chains. Like Zuko's little girlfriend probably will.

"I don't care at all about Zhao's experiment," Azula says and Hama shrugs.

"You care much more about grooming the Avatar into your weapon. Oh, but you seem quite uninterested in that when it happens, don't you? Almost like something pulls you back when you want to do the logical thing around her…" Hama trails off with a sparkle in her blue eyes.

"That's called hormones. She's a very pretty Avatar," Azula spits because she thinks this is _going somewhere _and she does not want it to be _going somewhere_.

"You wish it were that simple. Tell me why you spared the girl who stole from you that day," Hama says and Azula feels compelled to answer her.

"I have no idea. I just had a gut feeling she was important. And obviously my superior senses were right," Azula says confidently and Hama laughs. Azula clenches her fists.

"Your superior senses were old spirit magic. Or interference. Or whatever you call it. Every Avatar has one. And you're hers," Hama says, smirking.

"I misunderstand," Azula says coldly. "A firebending teacher?"

"A counterpart. No, not like an enemy, like a lover. Like the one they want to get married and have children with after their fight ends," Hama says and it takes a moment for Azula to process it. "It is your destiny to be that driving force for the Avatar."

Azula laughs mirthlessly.

"_I _am the hero of the story. _I _am Crown Princess Azula of the Fire Nation and there is _no way _that my _destiny _is to be the hero's girlfriend!" Azula exclaims confidently and coldly, but the previous Avatar just stares at her.

"You can't control what the spirits decided before you were even conceived. There is more to your destiny, but, yes, essentially, that feeling you had when she was going to be killed was the feeling of a thousand years of bondage," the old water _hag _says as calmly as a school instructor talking about plants or coal.

"Better than just wanting to screw her," Mai remarks out of the corner of her mouth and Azula barely refrains from burning her face off.

"There is more to it than being her _girlfriend_. It is a role more important than mine in her guidance. I had one, named Kanna. Kuruk had Ummi…"

"No. She is my _slave_!" Azula screeches and she only reels herself back in because she can feel the tenuous connection beginning to crack.

"Before you destroy this brief link with your spoiled whining," Hama says coldly, "you ought to bring the Avatar ‒ the _real Avatar _‒ here before anything regrettable happens."

Azula opens her mouth to snarl again at the _nerve _of a woman who allowed herself to be imprisoned, useless, for decades before Azula was even born. But, as Hama warned, the connection flickers and fades. Azula again feels the sensation of being stabbed in the head over and over again and she clenches her jaw with her eyes shut until it passes.

She glances to her side and sees Mai. Mai looks even queasier from the brief foray into the artificial Spirit Portal. It breaks and the room is dark again, illuminated only by lanterns that look pathetic compared to the glow of the Spirit World.

"That is more progress than we had ever made before," Zhao remarks, ignoring Azula's ruddy face and angry sneer. "All of those stories of your birth under lucky stars and blessed by spirits might have held more truth than I thought."

Azula wipes off her mouth and composes herself. "I need to take my slave girl in there."

"Why?" Zhao inquires with that same disapproving glance every adult gives her about her adolescent love. If she did not value her future reign more than her reputation, she would probably have screamed in everyone's faces that her slave is the _Avatar_ by now.

"Because I apparently have a bond to her, as the Spirit Agni told me," Azula says smoothly and Zhao believes her every word, of course. "You must have heard of those and their importance. That is why I spared her; she is destined to be a part of the Fire Nation's conquest of the Spirit World along with me. I intend to return with the pretenses that I am exploring our soul bond in order locate the _real _Spirit Portal."

Zhao has these wide, pleased eyes, and Azula pities his ambition. It overshadows his better senses.

"Of course. I will make arrangements at once."

"I expected that you would," Azula purrs as she tries to find the door and get herself out of this place.

* * *

"I'm so happy to see you," Ty Lee says as she hugs Azula tightly. "Your dad showed me around the whole palace and even saw some of Caldera. He said you could take me shopping tomorrow!"

"We have more important things to do than discuss your _day trip_. We are going to see Admiral Zhao," Azula snaps and Ty Lee frowns.

Azula had been so nice before when they stood in the sun and rain and clearly loved each other in silence.

* * *

As she is led to see Zhao, Ty Lee does not know why Azula is avoiding looking at her. She seems so _angry _at Ty Lee, but the Avatar cannot figure out why for the life of her. All Ty Lee can do is wring her sweaty hands and allow herself to be led through the strange facility that feels _surreal_. But this must be what the Fire Nation is capable of; they can create metal monsters and weapons that can bring kingdoms to their knees. Of course they would have to build those things somewhere.

"Have you told her about the tests?" asks the creepy guy who Ty Lee really doesn't like as soon as she and Azula walk inside.

"No. And I would prefer to keep it from her for the time being," Azula says crisply. She has already informed him that she cannot afford to let her slave know about the bond between them and Zhao, of course, respected it.

Ty Lee is pretty scared about whatever Azula is not telling her. But she does not have much time to worry before she sees the most beautiful sight she has ever laid eyes on. She is enraptured by it and her body sways slightly before she feels Azula's strong hand holding her in place.

Azula pushes them both into the portal before Ty Lee can do something _Avatary _and manages. They come out, gasping for breath, on the other side. Ty Lee looks around at this world and her mouth opens in excitement. The trees are so fluffy and _pink_. The sky is this color of _blue _that she has never seen before in her life, when she stole to live in a kingdom made of dirt with brownish skies to match.

"We have to find Hama," Azula says to Ty Lee and Ty Lee nods feverishly. "She told me something that I suppose you ought to know."

The two girls begin walking forward and Ty Lee thinks maybe she should ask questions. She should ask how Azula has just taken her into the Spirit World, but she does not know what she is supposed to say.

"Ahh, there you two are," the previous Avatar says with a small, knowing smirk. "I almost thought that the indignant princess here wouldn't bother doing as she was told."

"I did this because I wanted to," Azula snaps and Hama laughs.

"Of course, of course," she says before turning to Ty Lee. The vague grandeur of this woman in the mist makes Ty Lee feel a chill go through her spine. "Ty Lee, I would like to talk to you about Azula. She has decided to come into your life as your captor, but I am sure you felt things for her despite that initial treatment?"

Ty Lee nods once.

Hama continues, "You first went into the Avatar State to protect her, did you not?"

"I, uh, I was trying to stop myself from drowning too, I think." Ty Lee grins as her heart races.

"Right. I'd like to tell you a story…"

It goes on for too long. Ty Lee is stunned by the words, but excited by them in a way that Azula certainly was not.

"The other Spirit Portal that you will need to lead Zhao to is in the South Pole. _Not _the North. _Not _the one in the Fire Nation. It is imperative. You also must find the granddaughter of my love in order to help you get there. Believe me, you will need her… and your brother happens to know her," Hama explains and Ty Lee nods with an open mouth. Azula tries not to be overwhelmed by this unplanned detour on her road to the throne.

Azula asks, tired of this _sweetness_:

"So, we just have to interrogate ZuZu about his sex life and somehow that will take us to the South Pole by the powers of _twu wuv_?"

Azula scoffs.

Hama stares.

Azula knows when her defeat is inevitable, and she embraces it with honor.


	15. The Second Chance

"ZuZu, wake up," orders the last voice he wants to hear when sleeping on a two-inch mattress in a filthy prison cell.

He grunts before sitting up and blinking the dust out of his eyes. There she is, clean and glorious like always, and he has a mouth that tastes like dirt and blood. He bet hers tastes like cherries or… well, maybe the blood of her enemies too. He would not put her past biting someone's throat out.

Which is exactly why he knows nothing good can come of her visit.

"Come to, uh, taunt me?" He stands, still taller than her, even if he is at the disadvantage. "I've been interrogated and haven't said anything. I'm surprised father hasn't just put me out of my misery yet."

Azula sighs. "I have a better way of getting the information I need from you."

"No, you don't. I've already survived the worst torture mankind can imagine. Being _related to you_."

"Ha ha. You're so very clever." Azula doesn't hesitate to get to the point. "Tell me about your old Water Tribe girlfriend and I'll let you and your Earth Kingdom girlfriend go free. Well, no… I'll give you both a head start before telling father, but that is more than fair."

Zuko shakes his head, because he knows better than to believe a word she says. Much less _that_ absurd offer. But… wait…

"How do you know about Katara?"

"You just told me. Katara, is she? Now, given the very scarce number of Southern Water Tribe girls around your age left, I should be able to narrow it down."

"No, she's safe with Uncle, and he's a stronger bender and smarter tactician than you!"

"… and she's with Uncle. Okay, now that also narrows my search significantly."

Zuko sits back down with his back to her. "I'm not playing this with you," he growls.

"I already won. Tell me where she is and I'll hold true to my bargain. What do you have to lose now if I'm lying?" Azula says and Zuko swallows, shaking his head. "Oh, come on, if Uncle will so easily defeat me, won't she be perfectly safe even if I track her down?"

Zuko clenches his jaw.

Azula continues, "You could even give me a false location and I would be none the wiser."

"You'd follow me to them," Zuko growls through his teeth.

"You would be stupid enough to go right to the people you're trying to hide? Agni, someone should have just set you free weeks ago."

"Then you want me loose for another reason."

"I do. I want the permission to chase down the Avatar with my own ship, crew and foot-soldiers."

Zuko suddenly realizes that Azula is the only person other than he, Toph and Ty Lee who knows that Toph isn't the real Avatar. Even if she's lying, he can think of a number of ulterior motives that could give; Azula isn't releasing the _real _Avatar – she's releasing a diversion of some sort.

"She's just west of Ba Sing Se, between the Si Wong Desert and Full Moon Bay," Zuko says, although he is certain they have moved on to a new location by now.

Whether Azula believes him or not, he sees the glint of a key and hears the moan of the door as it opens.

"You will likely have two to three days. Your Avatar is in the catacombs beneath the palace. I'll let you find them yourself," Azula purrs and Zuko slowly stands.

He stares at her, looking for a lie, and the minute he steps out of his cell, shoves her directly at a wall and bolts down the deserted hallway.

Azula sighs and rubs her sore ribs.

This move better be worth it.

* * *

"I have the Water Tribe girlfriend confirmed, I have an alibi for finding her, I need my father's support and I need whatever is at the South Pole," Azula lists again as she paces.

Ty Lee doesn't say anything. But when Azula starts staring at her, expecting a response, Ty Lee says, "Are you mad at me?"

"Why would I be mad at you?" Azula snaps and Ty Lee recoils. "You're my soulmate. How could I ever be mad at you?"

"Are you mad that I'm your soulmate? Do you want Mai instead?" Ty Lee whispers and Azula scoffs. "What? It's a fair question."

"No, only some kind of very patient masochist would want her as a soulmate. She's just a friend who I have sex with sometimes," Azula barks. "I'm _mad _because I'm not supposed to be the girlfriend. You are! I'm supposed to be the hero, not the hero's _prize_!"

Ty Lee looks very uncomfortable before feebly offering, "We can be heroes together."

Azula throws a bottle of perfume at Ty Lee, who shrieks.

"You're still my slave even if I'm the girl in this relationship!"

"That's…" Well, true. Hama did say it was a girl because of some… reincarnation thing? Ty Lee doesn't know. She doesn't really get this. "No one said because you're the Avatar's true love you can't be a hero… or villain, whatever you like."

Azula takes a deep breath. "My _destiny _is to be your love interest. Do you know how fucked up that is for someone who thought her destiny was to conquer the world?"

Ty Lee averts her eyes.

"It is. I'm sorry."

"I don't care." Azula starts pacing again and Ty Lee keeps her mouth shut that night.

* * *

"Father, you don't understand. If I go to the South Pole, I uncover important—"

"The Avatar is not an _adventure_. She is a tactical advantage. And I've decided that you need some space from our secret weapon. You're accompanying Admiral Zhao to the North Pole."

"He's still on about that? I've _seen _the Avatar; he spent an afternoon reading some scrolls!"

"You're doing as I say because your actions are swayed by your attachment to an Avatar that amounts to nothing more than a powerful sword. She – it – isn't a person. It is power that you promised could be used to help us instead of trying to kill it over and over. That was wise. You brought me the Avatar and I am proud of you. I am not proud of your behavior when with it."

Azula clenches her jaw and swallows.

She bows deeply and leaves to go coerce Admiral Zhao.

When she finds him, he looks her up and down.

"Your brother and the Avatar tried to escape."

"_Tried_?" Azula asks too quickly. But she does not give herself away, thankfully.

"Tried. It was a bit of a mess but I have dealt with it and I have intent to use them both before the short-sighted idiots around us use them up."

Azula squints at him and considers pointing out that _he _is one of those short-sighted idiots but she changes her mind and sighs.

She instead coldly says, "We must take them to the rebels. And then take a detour to the South Pole. That's what I learned in your pet project that I am now involved with. I thought you put value in what the spirits want? We ought to listen to them and—"

"_We _aren't doing anything. _I _am going to the North Pole, and you are coming with me. _We'll_ deal with the Avatar once we have a significant advantage."

"I was using the royal 'we' and _we _are going to the South Pole. Or at least I am. This ocean and moon thing is utterly ridiculous. I thought you opened this portal to find out where to go."

"We'll stop there on our way back."

Azula stares at him with her arms crossed. This is next to futile.

"_You_ obey _me_ and that is final. Only I can get you what you want anyway. I suppose you should've thought _bigger _when you asked me to pay my debt to you."

Zhao's fists smoke, but Azula just gives a nod of her head and walks away.

She supposes she will need another plan to get to the South Pole, thanks to her father's skepticism of her abilities. Maybe she could commandeer a vessel of her own; she is not certain.

Of course everything has to be needlessly complicated.

* * *

After Azula begins trying to sort out her arrangements for a crew and willing resources, she finds her slave in bed already. Good. She collapses to sleep beside her, exhausted from an exhausting day.

And she wakes up to her head crashing against metal. Curved metal. Hard metal. The metal of an inside of a ship. No, Azula _just _closed her eyes; there is no way that she is on a ship after _blinking_. That does not happen to people, much less Princess Azula of the Fire Nation.

She forces her eyes to open despite the overwhelming desire to just go back to sleep, lulled by the rocking waves. She is in a small room that reminds her too much of where she chained up Ty Lee before discovering that she was the Avatar.

"Ty Lee," she says, the minute she sees her Avatar asleep on the floor. Ty Lee looks like a napping kitten, but Azula is not in the state of mind to appreciate the cuteness. "Ty Lee, get up and help me get free. Use your powers like last time."

Slowly, Ty Lee opens her eyes and out of her ungrateful mouth comes, "Five more minutes."

"No. In five more minutes we could be dead. We've been kidnapped."

Ty Lee jolts up after hearing that. She looks around, gasping, panicked as she sees herself locked in another ship. The Avatar shivers when she remembers last time she was imprisoned in this manner. It was unpleasant.

She stands up and tugs at the bonds around her. Then Ty Lee looks at them and smashes them against the wall. Azula shrieks.

"You're going to alert everyone," the princess snarls, but Ty Lee smashes it three more times until her wrists are blooded and one of her fingers bent.

Azula didn't know the cute, bubbly girl had that in her. Ty Lee pries the handcuffs from herself, now whimpering from pain, and moves towards Azula. Of course, Azula yanks her arms away.

"You are _not _doing that to me," she snaps. "Find a key or something to pick it with."

Ty Lee sighs and looks around the stupid room. She frowns before testing the door twice. No good. She then sees the small window.

"No. No. You don't even think about that. I'm not drowning," Azula snarls and Ty Lee gazes at her.

"It worked last time."

"You didn't know it would work last time. You can't waterbend and I don't trust you to waterbend," Azula hisses, but then she hears footsteps.

Ty Lee has frozen, unwilling to disobey. The door unlocks and Ty Lee punches the man stepping inside. Azula smirks wickedly; she loves the strength of her cute sort-of-girlfriend.

And Ty Lee proudly states, "Making that noise was a good idea, wasn't it?"

"You didn't know it would work," Azula snaps and Ty Lee pats her hands around the paralyzed guy. Then she sighs.

"He doesn't have a key," Ty Lee whines.

"You're a thief. Do you not know how to pick a lock?" Azula hisses, frustrated.

Ty Lee sighs and manages to find a pin in his uniform. It's bent but she manages to straighten it enough to get to work. Azula can barely breathe before Ty Lee manages to unlock her. The princess leaps to her feet and they run out of the door before slowing down and trying to keep quiet in the hallway.

"Who kidnapped us?" Ty Lee asks softly.

"Well, that's a Fire Nation uniform. I'm assuming my father or Zhao or basically anyone who somehow found out I was planning on leaving on my own," Azula says and Ty Lee sighs.

"Why didn't your father want to help you anyway?"

"That's none of your business," Azula says too fiercely, but Ty Lee doesn't think much of it.

They creep through the hallway, searching for a way up and out.

The two of them find steps and slip up them, holding their breath when they push open a hatch and examine their surroundings. No one looking; it's nighttime.

"There will be guards on watch. Go quickly. We're going to see how close to land we are," Azula says, hoisting herself out of the stairwell and crawling towards the edge of the ship.

"What happens if there's land nearby?" Ty Lee asks, but she knows.

If there's land nearby, she's going to be swimming.

Not again.

Then she hears Azula scream, and the clashing of boots.

_Ambush_.

Ty Lee's mind slips away from her and the last thing she feels is guiding a whirlwind of water into her hands.

Azula looks on in horror as her Avatar reveals herself, ruining _everything_. Then she forgets about her secret being exposed when the rush of water washes the men away. Ty Lee freezes it and then Azula hears very alarming sounds.

Ty Lee doesn't calm down. More men come, even though they slip on the ice.

The strength of water can sink an army.

Not again.

"I have to do something," says Azula to Ty Lee, reluctantly leaving her Avatar.

Something screaming inside of her, the bellowing voice of destiny that even the commanding princess does not deny, urges her to find her brother. She runs and runs as it tells her, _'Do not fail this second time.'_

Azula decides that it must be her own inner voice taking command of the situation. She _knew _she had the greatest Fire Lord of all time inside of her.

She wades through frigid water as she follows the voice, subconsciously accepting her second chance to do destiny's bidding and unite Team Avatar.

* * *

Zuko wakes up to the sound of panic. And the feeling of water on his feet. It is dripping under the door and the ship is rocking too hard.

"Toph, Toph!" he shoves her and she curses at him. "Toph, the ship is doing bad things!"

She wakes up and wishes she could feel better. Toph feels… helpless but she sure isn't showing that to Twitchy. Her feet are already weak enough from being chained up for so long she lost track of time. But now? Now she was ready to do some damage.

"Okay, the ship is sinking?" Toph asks, grabbing onto his arm and pretending to be seizing control of him. In reality, she doesn't think she can find her way out of this dark, tempestuous chasm. "How do we get out? _How_?"

"We're locked in. Fuck, we're locked in," Zuko says, his eyes wide.

"Lead me to the door."

"What are you gonna do? Kick it?" Zuko scoffs and Toph elbows him in the gut.

"Don't underestimate me, Twitchy!" She is overestimating herself, to be honest, but she never is letting anybody know that. She smashes her fists against the door.

"I told you not to just kick it!"

"I'm not kicking it! I'm punching it!" Toph shrieks and then she tries to calm herself down. She hits it again and again and again. She can feel flecks here and there. Metal is earth… essentially.

The water is rising and her feet are useless. It's a bit terrifying to be lost in darkness.

"Toph, look—"

That crushing sound was bone.

"Twitchy… Twitchy answer me!" Toph shrieks. "Answer me! If you got yourself killed, I'm gonna kill you."

She needs out. Out, out. He needs out, because if he isn't dead already, he's going to drown. Toph pushes on the door. Shoves. Presses her damp foot against it. Punches it. Holds onto it. The water is nearly at her waist and he still isn't answering her.

Adrenaline overcomes her.

Even if she isn't the Avatar like these dummies assume…

She is the greatest earthbender in the world.

But she doesn't even have time to do more than cheer about what she just accomplished, because the water hits her and she begins to panic.

Toph moves to get out before she is forced to swim – wading is bad enough – but the minute she gets out of the door she changes her mind and turns around. She reaches around the cell, down into the water. Her heart pounds because, spirits, she can't swim.

Her hands collide with warm flesh and muscle. She picks him up and it is much more labor than it would have been before her imprisonment. Thank the spirits for pull-ups.

He is breathing. Toph feels relieved, so relieved, because…

Because then turning around wasn't a waste, of course.

She runs forward through the water, across the tilting ship. Toph has no idea where she is going and wherever she is going, she knows it is going to involve drowning.

Then someone grabs her hand. She feels nails dig into her arm. She hears breathing.

She _knows _that breathing, and she would run if it weren't for the water coming at her from all sides and Twitchy weighing her down.

Toph lets Azula pull her up out of the rapidly rising water and hopes this isn't a worse fate than drowning.


	16. Screaming Your Name

Azula's first thought is her Avatar.

Her second is that she is crawling through the mud towards land. This is not how she expected to be escaping the Fire Nation. She thought she would have a nice crew and a ship and her secret safe. Ty Lee, of course, decided to make her eyes glow and _bend four elements _in front of Azula's kidnappers.

Kidnappers who are almost certainly led by Zhao.

"Ty Lee! TY LEE!"

"Stop screaming that," groans the blind girl Azula wasted time rescuing. "She probably can't hear you. You're just drawing attention to us. I mean, I could use a fight after _you got me locked up_, but my eardrums are half-ruptured."

Azula does not want to think about that possibility. No one can have her Avatar. It is _her _destiny to conquer _everything _by harnessing the powers of the Avatar. _No one _is stealing it from her. She will _die _before she loses her chance at absolute power.

"She must have made it to shore," Azula says and Toph sighs before lying down on the muddy bank. "Don't bitch and whine. I could have let you drown. Now help me find Ty Lee and I will help you protect your boyfriend."

"Not my boyfriend," Toph whispers, but she honestly does not have the energy to deal with this obnoxious princess. Her brother is bad enough. "So, where do you think you're going?"

"I…" Azula has no idea. She is just trying to find a way to get to her feet and start combing the shoreline. "That is _nothing _you need to know."

"I can't believe this," Toph mutters. Azula ignores her.

Azula grabs a branch and pushes herself to her feet. Her knees briefly buckle but she takes control of them and starts walking towards where she sees the smoke. She sincerely hopes that everyone who abducted her died in the shipwreck. They _did _crash into some pretty nasty rocks.

She forgets about her brother and his earthbender when she reaches the rubble and sees that it is out towards the water. The rocks seem to be surrounded by reef, and Azula bets that she can make it there.

The princess steps carefully onto the thin line of porous rock and lifts her arms to keep her balance. She then walks across the thin balance beam as fast as she can.

What she finds is hunks of metal. The rest of the ship must be elsewhere. And it does not seem like anyone is among the smoking mess.

"Ty Lee! Avatar girl!" Azula's voice is hoarse, she is tired, and she is done with this. She ignores her clothes and sits down on the reef with her chin against her knees.

The water laps against her sore feet as she inhales and exhales smoke.

She hates ships. She is _never _going on a boat again for as long as she lives. They seem to want to kill her. And Ty Lee is nowhere, nowhere to be found. Zhao must have taken her.

He clearly did not have a full ship, however, to get further than this island. She looks up and can see a few other land masses, some outfitted with trees. They did not seem to make it very far from the Fire Nation.

Hey, maybe there is a resort nearby.

Azula could use a resort.

* * *

"How long will it take to contact the navy?" demands Zhao of two soldiers. They both uselessly shrug. "We're not even in Earth Kingdom waters. We're barely out of the damned _harbor_. It's a day away. Tell me you can get us picked up."

"We can. Probably," one says in a cavalier tone that makes Zhao want to burn him alive.

"Not probably. Probably is not an acceptable answer. I have the _real _Avatar, and she needs to be returned to her proper owner. This is a _definitely _situation," Zhao growls viciously. This is the best thing that has ever happened to him, and he is not letting anything mess it up.

"Then we can. Definitely," he corrects.

Zhao is not satisfied, but he dismisses them anyway. His attention turns to his Avatar, whom is currently unconscious and tied to a tree. They don't have anything better to bind her with, and that concerns him. This entire _wreck _concerns him.

He got so close, so close to what he wanted. And he gets stranded like an idiot who cannot keep his own ship afloat while the _Avatar _is on board.

It is funny that she thought she could hide this from him.

He wonders… why she would hide this from him. She had to have some reason to keep glory like this to herself. Anyone who captured the Avatar would live in the history books forever as a hero.

That girl better not wake up, and that princess better not resurface.

* * *

Azula walks across the reef, drenched, cold and defeated. She reaches the beach and crosses it to find Toph and – Zuko is awake. Marvelous. Princess Azula has never been so miserable in her life.

"You're back. Great," Zuko grumbles and Azula rolls her eyes.

"Now is not the time for petty grudges. Well, I wouldn't call our lifelong grudge petty, but it is in this situation. I have lost the Avatar, and there is a significant chance that Zhao has her. We are going to rescue her if you two die trying," Azula states and Zuko and Toph laugh.

_Laugh_. They have no respect for the fact that she could end them both right now. A little lightning would be all it takes. A little lightning? Now there is a useful thought.

Azula turns to the water, presses two fingers together and _crack_, the air lights up and the water sizzles in a very unpleasant fashion. The silence and stunned expressions of Toph and Zuko are extremely satisfying.

"If Zhao didn't know we're here, he sure does now," Zuko says smugly, as if he is _so _smart. Azula does not know how much of this she can take, and she has barely even started.

"You have more to lose from him finding us than I do," Azula hisses.

"You have a lot of explaining to do," Zuko says.

"No. I don't. I owe you nothing, especially not explanations. You two will help me track down and recover my Avatar, or I will leave you two to die."

"I'm not doing a repeat of the forest," Toph firmly states. Zuko cannot argue with her; he did not have much fun in that horrible maze of trees.

"I promised you a head start. Did I not give you one?" Azula says. Zuko looks up at her and shakes his head. "That's not a clear answer. Did I, or did I not?"

Zuko stands and she tenses her legs. But he does not attack her.

"You act like father, but you're not father. I'll help you, but only if you treat me with respect," Zuko orders, his eyes locked on hers. She wants to break the staring contest but does not.

"I just want to make sure that Avatar is in my hands, and not his," Azula says with such a severe glint in her eyes that Zuko gets goosebumps.

"That I agree about," he admits once he accepts the situation and thinks quickly. "But if I help save her, I get credit. I get to go home, but not in a cell."

"Fine. I'll owe you one," Azula says, waving her hand and praying for her brother to hurry up.

Zuko's eyes bore into her. "You will owe me enough to get my crown back."

"Okay, whatever, just help me." Azula does not truly care.

An Avatar is worth much more than a crown.

* * *

The unlikely trio sits around a fire. Azula is tired and feels almost defeated. Princess Azula does not get defeated.

"Why'd you even help us get off that ship?" Toph asks, breaking the silence.

"I need allies. I evidently don't have as many as I thought I did. You two are a tactical advantage and nothing more," Azula says. Her throat hurts.

"Fair enough," Toph has to admit.

* * *

After a sleepless night on the muddy shoreline, Zuko and Toph are tasked with setting up a base while Azula scopes out the marshland. She seems out of it, in Zuko's opinion, but he remains focused. He has never been so close to winning back his old life before.

Toph says as she examines a branch, "Uh, Twitchy, this is gonna sound kinda weird but… what's all that about getting your crown back?"

"If I'm going to work this hard to capture the Avatar, I'm going to get to go home. That was the deal with my father," Zuko says.

"What deal?" Toph loudly demands.

Zuko sighs. He tries his best not to talk about his past situation.

"He sent me off to chase the Avatar and promised he would restore my honor if I came back with him – or, I guess _her _in this case – and so I want that. It's a fair reward for helping Azula."

Toph frowns and clenches her jaw. She manages to suppress her anger enough to give him a piece of her mind.

"But the Fire Nation is a horrible country full of jerks, and I don't know why you'd want the respect of a guy who's as clearly insane as Fire Lord Ozai."

"He's my father. I want his respect, and I want what's rightfully mine."

"Right." Toph tosses down the branch and sits on the bank. She does not want to help anymore.

"I don't need your approval. I'm doing what's right for me," Zuko argues and Toph wonders why he is so bitter. It is not like she cares what happens to him or anything.

But…

Toph kind of loses it when Twitchy just ignores her. "I _saved your life_! You were going to drown on that ship, but I – who can't swim – risked myself to _save your butt_! You owe me big time and you better not even think about not paying up."

"I didn't _ask _you to save me," Zuko snaps.

Toph hesitates.

"That doesn't matter. I _did_," she at last snarls.

* * *

Ty Lee wakes up with bonds digging into her skin.

She feels very groggy and it takes some time before she wakes up to see the makeshift military encampment. No. No. No. She remembers the ship and not much more than that, but she can tell that she is in trouble.

Being tied to a tree kind of makes her think that.

"She's waking up," says a voice Ty Lee cannot place. It is coming from her left side and that is all she knows. "She's waking up!"

Ty Lee nearly fades back into unconsciousness before she sees that awful guy approaching her.

"Where's Azula?" Ty Lee demands to know. Zhao gives her nothing, not even an expression. "Where's Azula?"

"Your princess is missing. She might have gone down with the ship." Zhao does not believe that; Azula does not die so easily. But Ty Lee's lip starts to tremble. She believes him, which is the important thing.

"She's not. She can't be, right?" Ty Lee squeaks. Zhao still shows no emotion. She hates him. She hates him. She hates him. "You have to go find her. Please, please go find her. I'll do whatever you want if you find her."

"You'll do whatever I want because you're a prisoner," Zhao says, shaking his head.

"I've been a prisoner my whole life. That doesn't scare me," Ty Lee whispers with fire in her sparkling eyes.

Zhao laughs. "You are in no position to make demands."

"I can destroy an entire warship," Ty Lee says. She isn't quite bluffing, but she actually has no idea how to do that. "I'll work with you if you get me my princess."

Zhao knows her destruction. He does not like toying with that possibility. But he also does not think this little girl is much of a threat. She is nothing compared to the trouble her girlfriend would bring.

"So can she. She can also sink my political career, which is really not an option. So you will stay here and behave," Zhao says. Ty Lee kicks at the tree viciously. "That's cute."

He walks away so confidently that Ty Lee screams in utter rage.

* * *

Zuko has no clue where Azula is. He looks at the fire he built and the traps he and Toph attempted to design.

"She's not coming back, is she?"

"She asked for your help. She probably needs you."

"I think she's too obsessed. My sister is used to getting what she wants." Zuko pauses to grumble unintelligibly. "She's not gonna take any of this well."

"So. What are you gonna do about it?" Toph asks. She honestly wants to know.

"I'm _gonna _go find the Avatar before she does. Ty Lee is somewhere on this island, right? I've been to these islands before and they're not big and they're closed off. It would be hard _not _to find her."

"Right. I don't care. If you're betraying your sister, I wanna get off this rock."

"Fine. Build a raft. I'm going to go find Ty Lee." Zuko stands up and starts walking.

Toph can feel him. The loose dirt makes it difficult to see him clearly, but she can feel him fading. And she shakes her head because that idiot is going to get killed without her. He is basically walking to his death, unless she's got his back.

"Wait!" Toph shouts. "Wait! I'm coming with you!"

She stands up and smothers the fire with a hunk of dirt.

Zuko turns and says, "Good!"

"I know it! Now you owe me double!" Toph walks to him and shoves his back.

They start heading in the opposite direction of Azula, in hopes of finding Ty Lee first.

* * *

Azula finds more wreckage.

She follows it, still wobbling from wounds but not stopping for a second.

Zuko and his obnoxious girlfriend may be waiting and building her a shoddy fortress, but Ty Lee is waiting to be rescued. Zhao is waiting to be very slowly killed by her.

Princess Azula will find her Avatar.

She will kill the man who stole her.

And she will rise to power with no sympathy for anyone who stands in her way.


	17. Questions

"Are you or are you not going to go back to the Fire Nation when we save that airhead Avatar?" Toph demands as she smacks plants out of her way. She has her arms outstretched at all times after a few trillion branches slapped her in the face.

Toph hates beaches, hates jungles, hates the Fire Nation. She kind of hates Twitchy right now too. She hates him and his grand plan to become Fire Lord or some other nonsense. It seems like a stupid dream, and no good could come of it.

"I don't know," Zuko says.

Toph sighs.

"So, yes, you are," she says. "I don't even know why I'm still helping you!"

"I won't let you get captured by the Fire Nation." Zuko is surprised at how quickly he announces that. He means it from the bottom of his heart, he supposes.

"Or killed," Toph says. "You won't let me get killed by the Fire Nation either, not that I couldn't take them all down by myself…"

"You couldn't take them all down by yourself, or else we wouldn't be in this situation," Zuko states, cocking an eyebrow.

"I'm a better bender than you!" Toph growls.

"You bend an entirely different element! This isn't a contest!" Zuko shouts so viciously that the birds flee into the clouds.

Toph cackles. "Oh, is that touchy? Is it? Why is that touchy, Twitchy?"

"It's not. I'm just aggravated by you right now." Zuko is grateful she cannot see how red his face is.

"I'm _always _aggravated by you, but I don't go snapping at people like I'm the Earth Queen."

"I _am _basically the Earth Queen!"

"Wait – wait what?" Toph laughs.

"By which I mean that I am the rightful heir to the Fire Nation throne," Zuko grumbles, embracing his defeat. Toph is impossible to argue with. Or reason with.

"Nope, I'm pretty sure the crazy girl who wandered off in the opposite direction is that."

"I was born first."

"I thought you were banished or something? Or are banished people still allowed to rule the country they aren't allowed to go back to?"

"It was a conditional banishment! I could go home if I found the Avatar! That's why we're—"

"Shouting in the forest?" asks a gruff male voice.

Zuko looks up and then glances back at Toph. He grinds his teeth; she should have noticed that someone was coming. Especially when that someone is _Zhao_, and he is holding two fingers to Zuko's nose.

Toph rips up the ground beneath his feet and he barely catches himself, but while she is focused on that move, two women drop down from the trees and pin her to the ground. She yanks up the ground and tries to shake them, but she has rope around her neck before she can strike.

"She will die, if you do not cooperate, Prince Zuko," Zhao calmly says.

Zuko weighs his options. He considers fighting Zhao, but he hears the cracking of rocks and then a whimper as the rope tightens around his only friend in the world. Zuko sighs and groans.

"I'll cooperate," he agrees, his gaze drifting to fixate on his feet.

Prince Zuko has never felt more defeated in his life.

* * *

"Where's your sister?" demands Zhao.

He has promised Zuko mobility – albeit with his wrists tied – as if that will make Zuko like him. Zhao clearly wants answers, and Zuko does not care enough about Azula to withhold them. He is absolutely not getting tortured to save _her _skin.

Again, Zuko explains, "We parted ways and she staggered off in the opposite direction to go find the Avatar. Well, actually, I promised to help her."

"So she might be coming back for you?" Zhao asks, leaning forward. Zuko can smell his breath now.

"Possibly, but I wouldn't bet my life on it." Zuko shrugs. "I don't think she's in her right mind at the time. Even if she did make a deal with me, she might be lost in the woods by now."

"I doubt that. I have underestimated the princess one time too many."

"Can I go now? I told you everything."

Zhao laughs. "Really?"

"It was worth a try," Zuko says, shrugging.

* * *

Meanwhile, Azula holds back a scream. She cannot be heard. If she is going to save her Avatar and kill the man who stole her, she must be silent.

However, it is extremely difficult to be silent when she has sharp metal spikes through her side and her left leg.

Her head spins, making it difficult to see properly, but she can see the sky mocking her above. The sun pours down on her as she fights not to cry from the pain.

Azula is not one hundred percent certain how she will get out of this, or if she even will. Her arms are free, and that might be her salvation, but her mind is nonfunctioning from the agony and panic.

A mocking voice in her head says that she should have returned to Zuko and Toph. They promised they would help her, and she was intending on using that as soon as she tracked down where Zhao must be keeping Ty Lee.

Azula licks her lips and pushes down with the heel of her hand. She tries to use flame to propel herself out of the bind, but she only succeeds in temporarily raising her side, effectively making the wound sear with pain. Her leg does not even budge.

She tries to pull the spikes out of the ground to no avail.

Maybe screaming would be wise. Maybe she needs someone to save her, even if they would subsequently take her captive.

Azula could fight herself out of that situation. She _knows _she could do that.

So she cuts her losses.

She screams. And screams. And screams.

* * *

A bloodcurdling shrieking noise comes from the trees, but no one seems to notice. Zuko, however, heard it loud and clear.

"Did you hear that?" the disgraced prince whispers to Toph.

Zhao is still distracted with the gargantuan task of contacting the Fire Nation Navy. At the moment, he seems dead set on sending out a raft towards the mainland. His second in command, however, seems to think that the Avatar blew them much further off course than they believe.

"That scream?" Toph whispers. "Yeah. It's your sister."

"How do you know?" Zuko snaps. "It could be an owl-hyena or something."

"Trust me. I have very good ears." Toph does not bother to explain herself further. Her anger about Zuko's Fire Nation lust still bubbles and simmers.

"Something really bad must have happened." Zuko has never heard his sister scream. Not once in his life.

A thought occurs to Toph. Hastily, she orders Twitchy, "Tell Ty Lee."

"What?" Zuko asks.

"_Tell Ty Lee_," Toph hisses. "Don't question me."

Zuko stands and walks towards the Avatar, whom still is tied to a tree. The guards around her look up at Zuko, consider stopping him, and then change their minds.

"Did you hear that?" Zuko asks and Ty Lee squints.

"That screaming sound? Yeah. I don't think Zhao heard it…"

"It was Azula." That does nothing. Zuko looks over his shoulder at Toph and glares.

"How do you know?" Ty Lee sounds nervous.

"Toph is blind. She has good ears. And I was just with her. I can only imagine something really bad happened. I've never heard her scream before."

Ty Lee squirms beneath her bonds. "Does she need…? She lived? She needs somebody to save her then, probably. I mean, she's not as perfect as she thinks she is."

Zuko thinks that might have been the smartest thing the Avatar has ever said.

Ty Lee sniffles.

Zuko glares at Toph again.

Then Azula screams from the jungle again, and this time everyone notices.

Especially Zhao.

* * *

Azula watches the sun set from her painful prison.

A storm brews viciously from the south of the island. Azula squints at the disruption and realizes that it does not come from the sky or the clouds. The tornado and tsunami are…

Her Avatar.

Azula pushes on the ground again and frees herself just enough to see the tiger-hawks descending on her. Oh no. This is bad.

She summons fire and burns back two of them. Others come at her and she uses snap reflexes to identify where they come from. Her fire becomes weaker the more panicked she becomes, when she needs it to be stronger.

Azula drowns in cerulean and fangs.

* * *

Azula's eyes open when she hears footsteps. Her weak body is surrounded by the corpses of creatures, and she imagines more have come. Or perhaps worse monsters who smelled the carrion. It _does _reek.

Maybe it is her Avatar.

"Need someone to save your life, princess?"

It is not her Avatar. It is her worst enemy and kidnapper: Zhao.

"No! I am doing just fine on my own, thank you!" Azula hoarsely calls up.

"Please, allow me to offer my assistance."

Azula hears a shrill scream, and the light thud of a girl falling next to her. The thick, furry corpses spare Ty Lee from the spikes below.

"I thought you were killing them all. I saw the fire and water and tornado…"

"Yeah, well, I definitely destroyed their chances of escaping, which, uh, actually seems pretty bad for us!" Ty Lee ignores Azula's incredulous expression and gets to work freeing her from the spikes. "Oh, your leg is bad." Ty Lee looks at her crimson hands. "And your side is bleeding."

"I noticed both of those things!" Azula snarls, her eyes molten with rage.

* * *

Azula stares intensely at the very uncomfortable, profusely sweating young man cleaning and bandaging her wounds. She sits at a camp in the process of being rebuilt and is trying her best not to look at her brother and his girlfriend. Any hope she had of them swooping in to do some damage is lost.

She knows she can still bend, but her injuries will hinder her attempts to escape alone. Azula finds it best to wait until Zhao receives his rescue – or gets close enough to making his own – and steal it for her own. He is not foolish enough to kill her and his hubris will make him easier to manipulate than the wilderness.

"You're all patched up, princess," the boy stammers before fleeing.

"Zuko," Azula hisses out of the corner of her mouth. His expression gives away that he can hear her and is pretending not to be able to. "Zuko, you answer me right now. Zuko. Zuko."

"What?" he whisper-roars. Azula did not know such a tone of voice existed.

"How did you idiots get captured too?" she softly demands.

"Yelling in the forest," Zuko admits shamelessly.

Azula cannot contain her laughter. At least she keeps it quiet.

"You should lie more often," she whispers.

"And why were you screaming all night?"

"I fell into a trap and had to fight wild animals while knowing there was a strong chance I would not survive and die alone in the jungle."

"Do you have an escape plan?" Zuko asks, locking eyes with his sister. She instantly looks away.

"If I did, would I discuss it openly? Would I discuss it with _you_?" She rolls her eyes.

Zuko opens his mouth to speak, but then changes his mind and turns away.

* * *

Zhao eats his dinner with Azula. He needs her on his side at the moment, or at least to be on civil terms with her. Azula needs Zhao to believe she is on his side, or at least that she is on civil terms with him. That could not be further from the truth.

"Does my father know you took me?" Azula asks before even touching her fish.

"Your father handed you right over," Zhao says so confidently that Azula struggles to make out if it is a lie or not. "You underestimate surveillance in the Fire Nation, and the number of eyes on you."

She changes the subject. "Have you had any luck securing rescue?"

"No. And your pet destroyed the supplies for our raft." Zhao nods at Ty Lee.

Azula extends an olive branch, because it is the best approach she can think of. "Most of the ship washed ashore just northeast of here on the beach. I went to it two days ago. I assure you that, if it is still there, there will be ample material for a raft. Given, of course, that you are as close to the Fire Nation as you believe. The Avatar is powerful, Commander Zhao."

"_Admiral_," Zhao growls. He stops eating.

"Right, right. I do not care."

"I saved your life. I think you owe me a _real_ debt this time."

"Oh, I don't believe in life debts. Only those owed to me, not the other way around. See, it is your duty as my subject to protect me and save my life. You have done nothing more than what is required of you."

Zhao does not like what he just heard. Azula takes a good deal of pleasure in knowing that.

"I'll allow that, because I am so kind."

Azula needs to know now. She cannot wait any longer to figure out if it really was her father who ordered her capture. Playing nice and going with the flow just is not in the princess's blood.

"What's your new military rank again?" Azula asks, batting her eyelashes once.

"Admiral. Don't mock someone who has absolute power over your life right now," Zhao says, not buying her innocuous expression for a second.

"Of course I would not, admiral." Azula continues her test. "Where were you born? You seem to know your way around the tropics."

He loosens slightly now; he seems to think she is trying to strike up a normal conversation with him. "I was actually born on one of the Western Islands."

"Do you think I'm pretty?" Azula inquires.

Now he very subtle bites his lip. He answers calmly but with the slightest red tinge on his face, "You're a child. I refuse to sexualize you."

"Oh, come on. You must have an opinion." Azula leans forward. The fire illuminates her features and she can see his better.

"I don't know what game you're playing," Zhao says, "but I'm not sure I know the rules, and I'm not sure I want to play either."

Azula leans back and shrugs. "It's just a question. You protest much more than you ought to."

"Of course you're pretty, and you know that you are," he relents. Now that is honesty.

This wild idea of Azula's might just work. Now to get him to lie again.

"Did you believe I died in that shipwreck?"

"I was most concerned for you." The same bite of his lip, the same light pink.

"Did you believe I died in that shipwreck?" Azula repeats, this time like a monarch and not a young girl.

"I was uncertain. Anyone would have been. It was a mess." Honesty.

"Have you ever thought about having sex with me?"

He almost drops his dinner and she has to force herself not to laugh. "You are a child and I will not sexualize you. I also have no idea what these questions have to do with anything."

"It doesn't have anything to do with anything," Azula lies. "I am just bored and wanted to watch you squirm. I can think of much more uncomfortable questions than those."

"I am sure you can, my princess."

"Oh, so suddenly polite and respectful of my status, as if you did not kidnap me," Azula says.

She does not have to wait long for her gamble to pay off.

"I told you that it was your father's orders," Zhao openly lies.

Azula's eyes gleam, but Zhao does not notice. The man has just given himself away. He acted believing that Ozai would be out of the picture by the time anyone knew he had taken Azula. Zhao has just revealed his treachery and Azula wonders just what he will do about this situation.

"Of course," Azula purrs, not giving away her newfound knowledge. "I never guessed that he knew of my deception. My father despises people making plots he does not know about. I once saw him have a mere messenger informing him of a scheme tortured to death. I imagine I will fare better, being his only viable heir."

Admiral Zhao now feels too nauseous to have an appetite.

"Enjoy your dinner." He leaves.

Azula smirks and slowly shakes her head.

That was too easy.


	18. My Brother

A/N: And, at the 1/3 point of this story, I finally give you the promised birth of Team Avatar. It's a short chapter so I promise the next one is coming soon.

* * *

While sedated, Ty Lee dreams of paper white skies, purple willows swaying and Avatar Hama.

"I feel so connected to my Avatar-self! It's like the most vibrant rainbow aura I never knew existed!" Ty Lee exclaims, overjoyed to be surrounded by the Spirit World instead of the horrid island where her corporeal form is held captive. It even _smells _nice here, and she did not know a person could smell anything in a dream.

Hama greets her with knowing eyes, but not a smile. There is a kindness about her, but it is bitter. Ty Lee has never seen a waterbender with a dark red aura before, and it unnerves her. Still, this is her guide to all things Avatar, so she knows she must pay attention.

"You're in a precarious position, now aren't you?" Hama wryly asks, which prompts Ty Lee to cock an eyebrow. "You'll get out of it, I'm certain. And once you do, I need you to begin your quest. It's very important. You need to open all four gates, and then you will find what you are looking for."

Ty Lee scratches her head. "I'm looking for a lot of things. Like, I mean, love and a peaceful world and the perfect braiding technique, so…"

"That's all you're getting," icily says Hama. "Just know that what you're destined to do is very important, but I don't trust your girlfriend and you inexplicably tell her everything. I will take you step by step, but no more than that, because _Princess _Azula of the _Fire Nation _is a key player in this… and also a dreadful, selfish embodiment of her Nation."

"She's not that bad," Ty Lee chirps, shrugging and smiling. Yet, she _does _know why Hama refuses to trust Azula. As wonderful and perfect and beautiful as the princess is, Azula is only loyal to her best interests. Those might not be the best interests of balance. Even Ty Lee knows that.

Ty Lee wakes up, fighting against the herbs, when she hears Zuko screaming. He is as loud as he is handsome, and no matter how heavy the tranquilizers, Ty Lee cannot sleep through this.

She looks up, tugging against her bonds before giving in, and sees the sunset—or maybe sunrise—and fire scorching the trees, disintegrating leaves and staining bark. It takes a moment for her blurry vision to adjust, and then she sees that Zhao and Zuko are fighting.

Azula watches from the background, and Toph follows it with her unhindered senses from the tree to which they chained her. Ty Lee opens her mouth, trying to say something, but she can only form a small murmur; the herbs are too strong.

Zhao beats Zuko, leaving the prince on his knees. Zuko begins to stand but Zhao kicks him back down. Azula stands up, wobbling from her injuries. Zhao grabs onto the prince by the neck and smashes him onto the ground. His scream makes Ty Lee cringe. It will bruise…

Bruises are the least of his worries when Zhao pulls him back up, throws him down once more, lifts him again and holds a burning hand near his face, ready to leave another scar.

Suddenly, Zhao topples down, Zuko hits the ground and, despite the agony of moving an inch, he turns to see Toph… still in chains, looking baffled. Zuko's savior still has smoking fingertips.

"P-princess?" Zhao chokes out, as surprised as everyone else there.

"It truly pains me to say this, but if you mess with my brother, you mess with me," Azula states, limping forward. She knows how screwed she is, injured and turning against highly experienced soldiers. Turning against the Fire Nation. Turning against her _father_.

Whatever voice forced her to save Zuko and Toph gave her no choice but to strike him down before he could kill her brother.

Azula steps on Zhao's neck and looks down at him for a moment.

"Give me one reason to let you live," Azula says, curling her toes, eager to snap his neck.

"I saved your life when you were in that trap," Zhao chokes out. Azula reluctantly removes her foot.

"Just once," Azula says, "because I leave no debts unpaid."

She commands the sparse soldiers to unbind Toph and Ty Lee. Toph helps Zuko up and supports him with one arm. It almost looks comical due to the height difference.

"Princess, we have one life raft," says a daring man. "It won't fit all of us or the equipment we saved, but it will fit you and these three."

Azula smirks. "Thank you. I will remember this debt when I have the throne."

Ty Lee leans into Azula and Azula leans into Ty Lee, both girls supporting each other as the three wounded members of the motley crew settle on a life raft. Zuko suffers from the most pain, but he still grabs the oars and rows them towards the mainland.

* * *

The rowboat is _torturous_. It is boring, and the Fire Nation is a thousand years away—or at least it feels like it, they cannot have gotten _too _far. Azula sits at the front, looking at her brand new loyal subjects. Her Avatar, her earthbender and her brother.

"As our leader," confidently purrs Azula, "I will take any questions."

"As our what?" Zuko snaps, his eyebrows angrily shooting up.

Azula coldly, cleanly says, "As the girl who saved your life and let you escape with her, I will take any questions."

Zuko grinds his teeth as he thinks about his response. "I mean, thank you for saving me, but you can't just make yourself leader."

"Of course I can," says Azula with a small, short laugh. "How do you think we became royalty? Our great great great great great great whatever grandfather decided to be leader."

Toph excitedly blurts out, "Are we becoming a rogue state?"

"Something like that," Azula agrees. Toph sits up, thrilled. "We are going to train the Avatar and then restore balance, whatever that is supposed to mean. So, Ty Lee has no mastery of any elements, save for a little firebending training I gave her, and some innate earthbending. She now has an expert firebending master and a fairly decent earthbending master."

"Fairly decent? Fairly decent?" Toph spits. Azula does not acknowledge the outburst.

"Anyway, we need a waterbending teacher, and Hama told me to take Ty Lee to Zuko's girlfriend," Azula says. "So, Zuko will lead us to Katara, and we will go from there."

Ty Lee adds, "Hama says we're supposed to open some gates or something."

Azula and Zuko turn to Ty Lee; Toph turns her ear towards her. All three are now hypervigilant.

"What gates?" Azula inquires.

"She said she didn't want to tell me everything because she doesn't trust you," Ty Lee says, shrugging. "I think she probably knows what to do, though, so let's figure out what she means by gates!"

Azula pouts. "That is ridiculous. I always have the best interests of the world at heart."

Zuko and Toph burst into hysterics. Azula glares. Ty Lee pretends to see something very interesting in the water.

* * *

They stop on an island, as Zuko's arms are sore. The pier is busy and the small fishing town is tempting. The quartet step out of the rowboat and onto the docks, sneaking through the packs of people to avoid paying. They dash into the town and go to find food as fast as possible.

"Ty Lee," says Azula as they stand outside of a bakery, "your skills are finally useful. You were a thief when I found you; steal us some dinner."

Ty Lee nods and does Azula's bidding.

* * *

That night, the quartet sits in a cave of all places. Azula is right when she explains that they will be caught very quickly if they openly cavort about and stay in inns… and they do not have much money. Ty Lee promises to cut purses in the morning, and Azula kisses her as some form of reward.

"Why did you save me?" Zuko asks his sister. They both have finished their bread and have little else to do other than stare at the fire.

"I was compelled to," Azula says honestly, although she does not care to explain the logistics.

"Do you think the four of us were supposed to end up together? Having a second shipwreck, and then the four of us getting stuck together again like in the woods…" Zuko turns his attention from the flickering flames to his sister's golden eyes.

"I think destiny is a funny thing." She glances at Ty Lee. "And a cruel thing that is confused when it comes to who the hero of the story is."

"Definitely not you," replies Zuko.

Azula pretends not to hear him.


	19. Fleeting Moments

A/N: This is kind of a filler chapter, but while I was waiting for midnight on New Year's I was writing some scenes I liked and thought I wanted to go into the story. The next chapter also has a lot of focus on bonding between the two couples, since trust is going to be hard to come by in this Team Avatar. They're very divided and I really love the firesibs reconciling in fics. But plot and action are coming very soon too. This will be a long story.

* * *

Zuko sits on watch with his sister, still picking apart her actions. The moonlight shines down on the forest. While the Earth Kingdom has been destroyed in many places in the name of resources, there are far too many trees for his liking. He has a tent that he shares with his sister and her girlfriend, since Toph has not invited him into her tomb of stone she constructs at night.

He does not want to talk about their escape from Zhao anymore; they have mentioned it enough and he has even degraded himself by thanking her. Yet, something disturbing occurs to him.

"So, I don't owe you anything, do I? I didn't _ask _you to save me," Zuko says, waiting in a cave. A _cave_. Being banished was better than _this_. Yet, destiny clearly pushed the four of them together for a reason, and he will see where fate takes him.

Azula nods sharply, keeping her expression blank and unreadable. Anger and embarrassment swell within him, reddening his face. She rolls her eyes when she sees his physiological response to her indifference.

"You are my brother, and no one may kill you but me," Azula states. He mostly believes her when she says it. "Especially not him. I despise that man and I will do everything in my power to destroy him."

"I thought we were training the Avatar and opening vague gates."

"That too. Those things are not mutually exclusive." Azula focuses on the world outside of the cave, doing her job for a few moments. "But you do owe me. He was going to kill you and you know that. My intervention saved your life; you have an unpaid debt."

"Marvelous," Zuko sarcastically says.

Azula is not the type of person he would want to owe a copper piece to, much less his life. She uses people, and debts are a very easy way to do that. He does not want to feel that he owes her, but he does. Saving his life is the worst kind of debt.

"Goodnight, ZuZu. Sweet dreams," she says. He is uncertain if she is mocking him or not.

Zuko decides that she probably is.

* * *

Azula enters the tent and sits beside Ty Lee.

The Avatar has not fallen asleep yet. She turns to look at Azula's face in the shadows. They remain silent; Azula exudes an air of anger that Ty Lee does not understand. The Avatar is not stupid enough to ask, but the answer is that Azula despises not being the hero or villain of the story. She has not taken kindly to being the Avatar's soulmate and nothing more than that.

"You know," says Ty Lee, "no matter how many times I look at you and you look at me and you just look so amazingly pretty, I just…" She kisses Azula. "I just wanna do that."

Azula does not appear happy about Ty Lee's gushing, as she often would.

"_I _kiss _you_. _You _do not kiss _me_," states Azula. "Mai knew that. I should've just stayed with her. Maybe I don't believe in soulmates."

"Do you believe in love?" Ty Lee whispers, a gentle smile painted on her lips.

"I think the evidence in its favor outweighs the evidence against it," Azula coolly states, her face an emotionless mask.

"So, you do believe in love," Ty Lee dreamily says, gentle, not assertive, but hopeful.

"Something like that," growls Azula through her teeth.

"And you didn't love Mai, but do you…?"

"If I ever decide if I love you or not, I promise that I will let you know," Azula says, "and I do not break my promises."

_You do all the time, _thinks Ty Lee, but she smiles like a dummy and lies down.

Azula hesitantly kisses her on the cheek before lying down beside her.

They cannot sleep. Ty Lee touches Azula's ankle and then takes her feet in her hands.

Azula does not move.

Ty Lee holds Azula's feet on her lap. She takes one in her hands, raises it, and touches her lips to it as Azula curls her toes. There is a dark intimacy to it, one neither girl quite understands. Ty Lee continues rubbing her feet, not kissing them again.

They almost cave in to desire, but manage to hold back.

* * *

Zuko jumps when Toph comes up behind him.

"You nearly killed me," he complains loudly. She just laughs, which he expected from her.

"Don't be such a baby, Twitchy," she says, silencing her laughter and sitting down beside him.

Zuko runs his fingers through the dirt. Toph reclines on the ground, letting the earth engulf her with a peaceful sensation. She feels his heart pounding too fast for no reason. Maybe she should ask about it. No, she changes her mind instantly.

"She saved me. She saved me and I'm really troubled by it," says Zuko.

Toph sighs. She does not need this.

"Whatever. So she wants to use you for her own mysterious ends. Why do you care?" Toph asks, sitting back up,

"I'm pretty disturbed by what those mysterious ends might be," Zuko says. He sounds breathless. She tunes in to the subtle sounds of nervousness that are drowned out by the animals and plants around them, the loudness of the nighttime wind.

"We're tough enough to stop her from doing anything crazy," Toph says.

"I wish I could believe you," Zuko replies.

He stays awake all night.

Toph sleeps outdoors beside him, which oddly comforts him.

* * *

Azula sits, perched in a tree, examining their surroundings. Toph is below, masked by the foliage she blends into.

"Why are we the ones to hunt for food? This job sucks," groans Toph, scratching her itchy nose. She is not a fan of listening in for the movement of an animal.

"Because we are the heartless ones who can kill. And we are also the observant ones who can find our prey," whispers Azula from above. Most could not hear her, but Toph's ears are tuned beyond most.

Toph takes a few deep breaths and sets her hand on the ground. She feels an animal moving and begins to pursue it before feeling it tense; it can hear her.

"What is it?" Azula softly breathes from above.

"There's a rodent or something nearby," Toph says quietly. It is the first time Azula has heard her talk softly.

Azula gently leaps down and follows the direction Toph points in.

She finds the rabbit-squirrel trying to climb and hop away from her. With a quick burst of flame, it falls, dead.

* * *

That night, the quartet eats better than they have in a long time.

Ty Lee found nuts and berries; Toph and Azula found meat. The thief can cook, surprisingly enough. Azula sits back and observes her new allies.

She must keep them wrapped around her finger, and she must continue using the Avatar like a marionette. If Azula is going to succeed at domination, she needs her little friends to behave.

Toph tells loud stories near the fire, laughing. Zuko listens in and laughs at times he thinks are appropriate.

"I was a thief, you know?" Ty Lee says when the group falls silent. "I didn't have much of a choice. My life was really confusing and I…" She trails off. "I'm pretty good at stealing. Do you think that'll help? I wonder if those skills are any good."

Azula shrugs. "You never know," she says. Her mind drifts away as Ty Lee regales the gang with cheery tales of her days as a pickpocket.

With her eyes closed and the acrid smoke burning her lungs, Azula thinks about her childhood, thinks about being raised to destroy, thinks about her decision to use the Avatar to get what she desires.

She wonders if her father will despise her. Azula wonders if she should return to him, the three of her new companions in shackles. Of course, Azula cannot bring herself to do it.

The revulsion she feels when she thinks about that alarms her. She could not possibly feel that way about someone, she hopes.

Azula suddenly rises and Ty Lee hastily joins her under the shadows of the nearby trees.

"What's wrong?" Ty Lee asks, reaching to hug Azula. The princess stops her.

"Nothing. I just find my brother abhorrently boring and Toph as well. I hate their talking so much that they don't even have to open their mouths to make my head hurt." That _is _true, even if she is withholding information.

"What are you planning, princess, if I can ask?" whispers Ty Lee, taking Azula's hand and stroking her wrist.

"I can't tell you," lies Azula. She cannot let anyone know that she does not have a decent plan. "It needs to stay a secret. Now, you are my Avatar and you will follow me, correct?"

"Yes," states Ty Lee. "I don't want to lose you."

"Why not? If you do, you can create your own Avatar journey. I am just your love interest, after all." Azula says the last part through clenched teeth.

Ty Lee wishes Azula were not so bitter about her role.

"None of it will matter in the end if I'm incomplete. I can't be the Avatar without you. I'd be broken," Ty Lee passionately whispers, leaning in to kiss Azula. The princess sets one finger to her lips to stop her.

"I hope you mean that," says Azula, analyzing Ty Lee. She shows no signs of lying.

"I do." Ty Lee closes her eyes.

Azula kisses her on the lips.

* * *

It does not take long for the teenagers to get caught.

Azula and Zuko had training as soldiers, but they were surrounded and did not even know it. Now, the quartet stands with their hands up, eyes flitting about, silently trying to decide if they will fight the buff, heavily-armed soldiers, or if they will play along.

"We're not the army or the rebels," says the low voice of their leader. "Don't look so worried. We're scientists."

"You are very… well-equipped scientists," says Azula, taking two steps forward. Slowly, she lowers her hands. They grip their dear weapons tighter and she picks out three earthbenders in the bunch. They all slide into a basic stance as her eyes briefly hit each one. "We are very under-equipped runaways who would deeply appreciate your mercy."

Zuko has never seen Azula ask for _mercy_, which makes him wonder what could make her do such a thing. Of course, her bluff saves them from a fight, but, in all likelihood, they would have won. She has ulterior motives that are unclear at best.

He hates being her ally almost as much as he hates being her enemy.

* * *

The hired muscle of the supposed scientists leads the four teenagers through the forest. They apparently have trespassed on their land, and will be taken back to their base. All four kids are cautious as they walk, prepared for a double cross and ready to fight at the drop of a hat.

Despite that, they play dumb and docile.

"What are you studying?" Ty Lee asks, beaming at the nearest man to her. He is taken off-guard by her looks and the swift bat of her eyelashes; no one would suspect that she is he Avatar.

"Well, I just guard doors and stuff, but we're on research projects for the Fire Nation. From what I've seen, I think we're looking into spirits."

"Spirits aren't science, silly." Ty Lee waves a hand, still smiling.

"Then I guess my employers shouldn't be calling themselves scientists." He runs his hand through his hair. "Are you—"

Ty Lee yelps when Azula grabs her by the waist. The princess turns to the mercenary and snarls, "She is taken."

Blushing, Ty Lee says, "I am, aren't I?" with a dreamy look in her eyes nothing but love could replicate.

That merc boy does not say another word, put out as he is.

* * *

They reach the fortress of the Fire Nation and Azula turns to Zuko.

The brother and sister understand the meaning of the glance.

_We are stronger than them_, Azula's eyes say.

_I know, _Zuko's reply.

This better not go wrong. It reminds Azula very much of Zhao, and that seems like a risk.

Still, they play along with the mercenaries for the time being.


	20. Bonding

The home of the scientists is an old Fire Nation military base. They withdrew troops from this sector of the Earth Kingdom about two years ago, but it never fell into disrepair or thorough abandonment.

A merc explains to the kids, "They're R&amp;D for the Fire Nation military."

"But you all aren't soldiers," Azula says warily.

"No, we're not. Fire Lord Ozai doesn't find this place too important. It doesn't need much protection but the recent attacks from the Earth Kingdom in this area say otherwise. The sponsor for this project pays out of his own pocket to keep the research safe," says the grizzled man. Azula sees no lie on his face, and therefore nods.

It is best if there are fewer chances to be recognized. As soon as they enter the grounds of the base, Azula turns to the same man.

"We want to join you. We will work for free, if you let us live here and eat your food," Azula announces. Zuko clenches his jaw, Toph clenches her fists and Ty Lee cocks her head to the side. "Can you offer that?"

He studies the kids. "Sure, if you don't need any training."

"Trust us. We do not," purrs Azula, exuding the kind of confidence that sways anyone.

"Good. I'm not one to turn down free help."

* * *

As soon as they enter the living quarters of the base, Zuko turns to his sister, fuming. They walk into the small room with two bunk beds and nothing else, and, while Ty Lee and Toph slowly settle, he broadens his stance and crosses his arms. Azula does not stand down.

He growls, "We're not _seriously _joining these people, are we?"

"It's better than camping in the woods. We remain connected to the world and get to fight. Besides, I consider this temporary. It's an alliance that will serve us well for a period of time," Azula explains. Her words are true enough to make Zuko begrudgingly nod. Toph does not argue either and Ty Lee would never say a word against the princess.

"Can I talk to you in the other room?" Zuko asks of his sister.

"Yes," Azula replies, nodding. They step aside, leaving Toph and Ty Lee behind.

They enter a room with more decoration. It looks like a living area with a few living things growing in plain vases, paintings on the walls and a worn Pai Sho board on one of the four tables. Zuko lights three of the candles and turns to Azula.

"I don't know if I can follow you," says Zuko. "I don't know if I _should_. You helped me get away from Zhao, but maybe we should part ways tomorrow. I'm…" He groans, wishing he did not have to have this conversation. "I'm finding it hard to believe that you're not just playing us. It's exactly what you would do."

"Yes, it is," Azula says. "But not this time. I have the Avatar, I have a destiny and you have a destiny as well. You and your little girlfriend have been thrust together with me and Ty Lee before and we ignored that sign. I am beginning to embrace my role in whatever is to come."

"Your _role _in _whatever is to come_?" Zuko laughs. She remains frozen in place. "You act so calm and casual; you act like you have a _right _to change sides. You've done a lot of terrible things and you're never going to pay for them."

"I can pay for them by doing a good thing," Azula says.

"It doesn't count as a good thing if you're only doing it to get laid."

"That is not my reasoning. I have not been given a choice." Azula steps forward. "You have not either. We were born to restore balance, even if we did not know it." She lifts her hand towards his face. Zuko's muscles tense, holding him in place. "Trust me."

When her fingertips land on his scar, the candles flare and he seizes a vase of lavender. He throws it at the wall with all of his might. It shatters forcefully. The moment the glass breaks, Azula scratches the side of her face with her nails and covers the bleeding cut with her palm. When she gasps, Zuko turns to her, panting.

She slowly lowers her hand. He looks at her and his expression contorts with guilt.

"I didn't…" Zuko furrows his brow. "I'm sorry."

"I know you are," replies Azula. "All I want is for this to work out. I want us to win. This is the best course of action at present."

"I'm…" Zuko sighs. "I'm going to trust you."

"Trust me?" Azula cannot believe those words. She does not think she has ever heard them from someone who knows her. "How do you know you can trust me?"

"I don't. That's what trust is."

"What trust is?"

"Not knowing but doing it anyway. It's a leap of faith. I know you've never taken one but they're worth it about half the time."

"I did take one," Azula snaps. "I saved the life of a girl who tried to steal from me."

"That was one that paid off."

"Depending on the day I would agree."

"Depending on the day?"

Azula sighs and averts her eyes when she says, "Sometimes I regret it."

Zuko has no response.

He does not believe she wants one.

They just silently return to their bedroom and go to sleep on opposite bunks.

* * *

The next morning at daybreak, Azula and Zuko go out to the yard. Ty Lee and Toph sleep in, not being firebenders and therefore not appreciating waking up at dawn.

Once the girls do wake, Ty Lee captures Toph to impose her wicked will.

"Toph, you need to discover make-up," Ty Lee says, patting the shoulder of her new friend.

"I'm blind. I don't need to look nice."

"So? Other people can see you and—as your super good _friend _I'm telling you the truth—you look _awful_. Kinda shabby and really dirty. I'm gonna make you _so _pretty."

"We're on a military base. Where will we get make-up?"

"There are women here. Duh."

"And… you think they have make-up?"

"Yup! There's one girl who's really hot and she always looks made-up. We should find her! Then we can have ladies' day together!"

"Where's Zuko?"

"Oh! And we can talk about your undying love for Zuko."

Toph sighs. "If you weren't the Avatar I would kick your ass right now."

* * *

Out in the yard, Azula holds up a stone ball with one hand. Zuko glances around and sees the two hoops of a very dangerous sport that no one let them play as children. The adults always said it could too easily leave the Fire Nation short of two heirs.

"Looking for some fun, ZuZu?" Azula asks.

Zuko groans. "I'm not playing Tama with you."

"You are just afraid to lose," purrs Azula, holding up the stone ball.

"Azula, you might be good at firebending, but you're frail. I might break your bones by accident in a ball game."

"Oh, _come on_," Azula says.

Zuko cannot say no to that challenge.

* * *

Ty Lee cannot find make-up, but she does find war paint. With a chopstick, she makes a palette of gorgeous hues and forces Toph to sit still in the communal bathroom, in front of the wide but cracked mirror. She survives the snide comments as she eagerly does her work.

At last, Ty Lee smiles and steps back. She looks at the mirror and grins wider at herself.

"What do you think?" asks Ty Lee excitedly, clasping her hands together.

"I think it looks great," sarcastically replies Toph. "I'm leaving now and I better not look ridiculous. I have better things to do than _ladies' _day."

Ty Lee pouts.

"You're not a very good friend," she grumbles to herself.

Toph just shrugs and leaves the bathroom.

* * *

Azula lies down, sweating profusely. The Earth Kingdom cold freezes the sweat onto her body, making her start to shiver. Zuko sits near her, still clutching the smooth stone ball.

"Do you surrender yet?" he asks.

Azula keeps gasping. She does not want to say it, but he might be better than her at this.

"I…" Azula squeezes her eyes shut. "No! I do not _surrender_!"

She claws across the rock and grass to reach for the ball. As she tries to reach it, she finds that Zuko is too weary to get up and away from her. She sets one palm on the ball, but cannot get up and continue playing. Since he cannot either, they just remain that way.

Slumped on a Tama court, bruised, exhausted, but together.

Maybe the sibling bonding was mildly effective.

* * *

"Toph," says Ty Lee as they walk back to their bunks, "I think you look super pretty. You _are _super pretty under all the dirt."

"You kinda say that about everybody," Toph says, flopping down on the lower left bunk.

"But I mean it about you," Ty Lee says, crawling up the ladder to the upper right one. "I just want to be friends and friends give each other makeovers sometimes. We can do earthbending tomorrow if you want. I need to learn it anyway and I'll so let you get a couple shots if that'll make it up to you."

Toph laughs. "You're kinda cute. But only kinda. Mostly you're sickeningly sweet."

Ty Lee grins at the ceiling.

They are definitely friends now.


End file.
